Abundance and diversity of soil arthropods in a tropicaldeciduous forest and mangrove forest of Kerala, India

Abstract

The abundance and diversity of soil arthropods in the Marottichal tropical deciduousforest and Kodungallur mangrove habitat of Thrissur District were studied. A total of 98 speciesbelonging to 15 orders and 5 classes were obtained from the study area. Of these, 59 species belongingto 13 orders and 3 classes were recorded from forest habitat and 47 species belonging to 8 orders and4 classes from mangroves. Order Coleoptera was the most abundant in both forest (30.69%) andmangrove (36.5%) habitats. Sorenson’s similarity index showed only 15.09% similarity among speciesindicating that both the habitats harboured significantly different types of species. It was notedthat, as the humidity and moisture decreased, the abundance of species also decreased in bothhabitats. Temperature was negatively correlated with abundance of species. The diversity in foresthabitat (4.03) was higher than mangrove habitat (3.77). Maximum abundance was recorded duringmonsoon season (June- August) and least during winter season (December- February). The speciesaccumulation curve plotted for the study area indicated that there are more species likely to bediscovered in both the habitats. © 2020 Association for Advancement of Entomology