Distribution and Abundance of Soil Arthropods in the Northern Mojave Desert

摘要

Arthropods were extracted from soil samples taken from around four perennial plant species in Rock Valley, Nevada from January to December 1975. The pattern of distribution of the anthropods about the shrubs is described and a model has been constructed to estimate population densities and biomasses. Total arthropod densities ranged from 1600 per m exp 2 in July to 12,400 per m exp 2 in December. Total biomass was also lowest in July, 8.7 mg/m exp 2 , and reached 37.2 mg/m exp 2 in May. The majority of animals collected belonged to the Acari, and of these the Cryptostigmata and the prostigmatid families, Nanorchestidae and Tydeidae, were most abundant. Seasonal variations in the distribution patterns are discussed. (ERA citation 04:039595)