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S. Gholami et al. 2010. Spatial pattern of soil macrofauna biodiversity in wildlife refugee of Karkhe in Southwestern Iran
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Spatial pattern of soil macrofauna biodiversity in wildlife refugee of
Karkhe in Southwestern Iran
Shaieste Gholami 1* , Seied Mohsen Hosseini 1 , Jahangard Mohammadi 2 & Abdolrassoul
Salman Mahini 3
1 Tarbiat Modares University, Iran
2 Shahrekord University, Iran
3 Gorgan University, Iran
Abstract
Information about the spatial patterns of soil biodiversity is limited though required, e.g. for
understanding effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes. This study was conducted to
determine whether soil macrofauna biodiversity parameters display spatial patterns in the
riparian forest landscape of Karkhe, southwestern Iran. Soil macrofauna were sampled in 2009
using 200 sampling point along parallel transects (perpendicular to the river). Maximum
distance between samples was 0.5 km. Soil macrofauna were extracted from 50 cm×50 cm×25
cm soil monolith by hand-sorting procedure. Abundance and Shannon H’ index were analyzed
using geostatistics (variogram) in order to describe and quantify the spatial continuity. The
variograms were spherical and revealed the presence of spatial autocorrelation. The range of
influence was 1724 m for abundance and 1326 m for diversity. The variograms featured high
ratio of nugget variance to sill. This showed that there was the small-scale variability and
proportion of unexplained variance.
Keywords: Biodiversity, Soil macrofauna, Spatial pattern, Variogram
1. Introduction
In the last 15-20 years, riparian forests have become recognized as important components of
landscape and serve as a vital link between the aquatic environment and upland ecosystems
(Giese et al. 2000). Riparian ecosystems are aquatic-terrestrial ecotones with unique biotic,
biophysical and landscape characteristics (Lyon and Gross 2005). Accordingly, sustainability
and maintenance of riparian vegetation or restoring of degraded sites is critical to sustain
inherent ecosystem function and values (Giese et al. 2000). Many scientists believe promoting
sustainability is the overarching goal of landscape (and regional) planning, (Leitao and Ahern
2002).
A current challenge in ecology is underestimating how patterns and processes vary with scale
and searching for general principles (assembly rules) which determine the species composition
of communities (Guillaume 2002). Also a fundamental and unanswered research question in
landscape ecology centers on how the spatial arrangement of the ecosystems influences the
distribution and abundance of organisms (Coulson et al. 1999). Description of patterns in
species assemblages and diversity is an essential step before generating hypotheses in functional
ecology (Guillaume 2002).
If we want to have information about ecosystem function, soil biodiversity is best considered by
focusing on the groups of soil organisms that play major roles in ecosystem functioning when
exploring links with provision of ecosystem services (Barrios 2007). Information about the
* Corresponding author. Tel.:+989163716945 - Fax:+986712231662
Email address: Mozhgangholami@yahoo.com
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.