THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE SPATIAL AND SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL MACROARTHROPODS IN QENA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Research Papers

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Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

Abstract

Soil macroarthropods are an important component of terrestrial ecosystems due to their main regulators of crucial processes; their abundance and diversity can be used as an indicator of healthy soils. The present study assessed the effect of some ecological factors on soil macroarthropod functional groups at six different localities in Qena Governorate during one year from March 2021 to February 2022. The study revealed that a total of 54 macroarthropod taxa were identified. The Insecta were the dominant group as numerically represented with 25 taxa, followed by Arachnida with 22 taxa, then Crustacea with 5 taxa, and finally Chilopoda, which was represented by 2 taxa. The results from multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) conducted that all of air and soil temperature, soil moisture, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS) and organic matter exhibited highly-significant differences (P<0.01) between the studied sites. Air temperature and TDS were found to be the most effective factors on the total density of soil macroarthropods using Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression analysis. The Arachnida, Crustacea, and Insecta groups showed positive correlations with air temperature; while Chilopoda was positively correlated with soil moisture.

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Egyptian Journal of Zoology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 19 January 2025

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