Biodiversity of Soil Arthropods in Nigerian Institute for oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Nigeria

A survey of soil arthropod fauna inhabiting Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) was carried out from July-September 2012, with a view to determine the diversity and distribution of soil arthropods of the area. Two study stations were identified at the area, namely; Station one (Plantation site) and Station two (Control site). One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven (1877) individual soil arthropods were recorded from both stations. These individuals were represented in 4 classes, 11 orders and 21 families which were collected and extracted using the pitfall trap method and the Berlese Tullgren Extractor Funnel. Data collected from the study stations were subjected to appropriate statistical analyses which included Simpson’s index (Ds), the Shannon Wiener index (H’), the Shannon Diversity T-test and Evenness (E) to determine the diversity of the soil arthropod fauna. Station one (Plantation site), was the most diverse station (Ds=2.99) and (H’=1.84) while station two (Control site) having (Ds= 2.94) and (H’= 1.69) is the least diverse station which may be as a result of anthropogenic activities. The Order Hymenoptera and Family Formicidae (50.5%) and (38.7%) respectively were the dominant and abundant group in both stations with the Order Crustacea and Family Armadillidae (22.2%) and (1.63%) respectively were the least dominant and abundant in both stations. The soil arthropod fauna correlated positively with the soil organic carbon (r=0.16), soil moisture content (r= 0.26) and soil pH (r=0.60) while the soil temperature correlated negatively (r= -0.89) in both stations. This implies that soil arthropods increase with increasing soil moisture content and decreasing soil temperature.

Keywords
Biodiversity; Soil arthropods; Nigerian Institute for oil Palm Research; NIFOR; Nigeria