Variation of soil arthropods abundance and diversity between two sites of the Punjab province in Pakistan

Soil Arthropods are a vitally important component of the ecosystem, as their diversity, abundance, and distribution pattern play a vital role in ecosystem sustainability. Their population is expected to vary according to geographical patterns and environmental variables such as temperature, and humidity. For this purpose, we collected soil arthropods from the two regions having different latitudinal patterns: FSD (Faisalabad) and MGRH (Muzaffargarh). The soil faunal samples were collected fortnightly from the mango orchards for two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018. During the whole research, a total of 8301 specimens of (16, 11) orders, (118, 57) species, and (5027, 3274) individuals were recorded from FSD and MGRH, respectively. Order Coleoptera found the maximum abundance in both regions among all orders. Our results showed that the FSD regions had a high abundance of arthropods compared to the MGRH region. In comparison, the different diversity factors and abundance revealed a strong correlation with the abiotic factors. They showed a high pattern of distribution and richness at the FSD region, as low temperature and high humidity were observed in the FSD region that influences the more diversity occurrence of fauna. Our results predicted that the habitat type and environmental factors such as humidity and temperature play a significant role in the distribution pattern of arthropods in any geographical region.

Automated summary

The study revealed that soil arthropods in FSD region had higher abundance compared to MGRH region, showing strong correlation with abiotic factors. The low temperature and high humidity in FSD region influenced the occurrence of more diversity in fauna.