Community structure and diversity of soil oribatid mites in Tianshan Forest Park，Xinjiang，China

In order to explore the impact of vegetation types and forest management on the soil oribatid biodiversity，we investigated the community structure and diversity of soil oribatids in 7 different habitat types in Tianshan Forest Park，Xinjiang，Northwest China using Tullgren funnel. We captured 21 836 adult individuals of oribatid mites which belong to 81 genera and 45 families. Among them，Oribatella was the dominant group and account for 11.24% of the total abundance，Oppiella，Ceratozetes，Jugatala and Rhysotritia were subdominant groups，and account for 23.58%；21 genera including Trhypochthonius，Camisia and Tectocepheus were common groups，and account for 49.8 %；55 genera including Eremulus，Galumna and Hoplophthiracarus were rare groups， and account for 15.38%. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the structure and diversity of soil oribatid mite communities among different habitats（ P<0.05），the number of individuals in coniferous forest >conifer-broadleaf forest > broad-leaved forest > nursery garden > meadow steppe> shrubbery> grass glade，and the diversity index represents coniferous forest> nursery garden > broad-leaved forest> shrubbery> conifer-broadleaf forest> meadow steppe> grass glade. There were significant differences in the spatial and temporal distribution （P<0.01），the vertical distribution has distinct surface aggregation，while the total abundance was highest in autumn and the lowest in spring. MGP analysis showed that the soil oribatida community basically belonged to 0 type and P type. The clustering and sorting results divided seven different habitats into four main types. The results showed that vegetation type and human disturbance were the dominant factors affecting the structure and diversity of soil oribatida community in Tianshan Forest Park.