Shrublands Ground-Dwelling Arthropods: Their Response to Management

Soil organisms play an important role in providing soil stability. Understanding the diversity of soil organisms and their controlling environmental and management factors is essential for sustainable development of ecosystems. We studied the density, frequency and diversity of ground-dwelling arthropods at the family level in an arid to semi-arid shrubland under different management practices. The arthropods were sampled in the 50 x 50 x 25 cm plots and pitfall traps. In total, 167 species were found which belonged to 5 classes, 12 orders and 17 families. The class Insecta included about 60% of all arthropods. The family Formicidae had the highest density in both grazed and ungrazed areas. Shannon-Wiener diversity index was reduced from1.73 in the ungrazed areas to 0.86 in the grazed areas. Non-metric multidimensional scaling showed that Carabidae and Lycosidae were the main diagnostic families between grazed and ungrazed areas. Although there was a positive significant correlation between the vegetation cover and the frequency of most arthropods (p < 0.05), there was no significant correlation between soil properties (soil moisture and bulk density) and the accumulation of the arthropods (p < 0.05). Based on our results, insects are an appropriate bioindicator for monitoring rangelands under different management practices due to their high frequency and sensitivity to environmental and management conditions.