In recent years, the alpine meadow distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has degraded due to climate change and heavy livestock activity. Soil invertebrates are the central link for material cycling and energy fl...
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In recent years, the alpine meadow distributed on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has degraded due to climate change and heavy livestock activity. Soil invertebrates are the central link for material cycling and energy flow in the terrestrial ecosystem. However, the response of soil invertebrates to the alpine meadow degradation is unclear. We investigated the soil macroinvertebrates, plant communities and the soil properties in swampy, grassland, dwarf and sandy meadows, representing four degradation phases of alpine meadow, to reveal the soil macroinvertebrates response to alpine meadow degradation from April 2009 to October 2011. The soil macroinvertebrate community structure in the dwarf meadow was notably different from the communities in swampy and grassland meadows, and most of the macroinvertebrate groups disappeared from the sandy meadow. Taxonomic richness and abundance were significantly greater in the dwarf meadow and significantly lower in the sandy meadow. The seasonal dynamics for the community richness, Shannon index and abundance also varied significantly among the four phases and the sampling years. Furthermore, the Polydesmida, Coleoptera and Diptera abundances changed significantly among the four phases, and significant seasonal changes were recorded for Polydesmida and Coleoptera. The taxonomic richness and Shannon index of soil macroinvertebrates correlated significantly with the parameters of plant community and soil, but the abundance of soil macroinvertebrate community and the groups of Polydesmida and Diptera only correlated significantly with soil properties. The primary determining factors for soil macroinvertebrates in the swampy and grassland meadows were plant communities and specific soil properties, but only soil properties were controlling factors in dwarf and sandy meadows. Our results indicate that the moderate degradation in this alpine meadow increased, and severe degradation reduced soil macroinvertebrate diversity. Our results als
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