Effects Of Managed Meadows On Diversity Of Insect Community And Soil Macrofauna In The Tibetan Region, Northwestern Yunnan, China.

Northwest Yunnan is a global biodiversity'hotspot'in China and belongs to frail ecosystem. Heavy grazing had made degradation of meadows in Northwest Yunnan. But there is little report about effects of grassland management on biodiversity of insect community and soil macrofauna of grassland in Northwest Yunnan. Diversity of insect community and soil macrofauna in four different management meadows (forage meadows, cultivated meadows, grazing meadows and shrub meadows) was studied based on the field ecological methods. The aim was to seek grassland managements which benefited to maintain biodiversity of grassland and can also accept by local people.The results were as follows:(1)Biodiversity of herb insect community.â‘ Orders, families and species had maximum values in September, middle values in June, and minimum values in March. Cicadelloidea (Homoptera) was the dominant groups and Diptera was the normal groups of herb insect community in different sampling times of four different management meadows.â‘¡The total of Shannon-Wiener index in different sample times of a year was highest in shrub meadows, lower in cultivated meadows and forage meadows, lowest in March. based on the criterion of Jaccard`s CJ, it was found that the similarity index in September was largest among different management meadows.â‘¢Grazing impact biodiversity of herb insect community both directly and indirectly. Heavy grazing reduct structure and coverage of grassland vegetation, which was important for insect to live. Enclousure (no grazing) benefited to maintain biodiversity of grassland.(2) Biodiversity of soil macrofauna. The number of macrofauna was highest in September, lower in March and lowest in June. The dominant groups of soil macrofauna were Enchytraeida and larva of Scarabaeoidea. Ridge culture used in cultivated meadows made the physical structure and nutrient ingredient of soil better...