Abstract: Abandoned mines are among the most significant pollution threats in Huainan City, Anhui Province. As the most sensitive environmental indicator, soil animals in those areas are worthy of investigation in ecological restoration. Eight sample plots were selected for studying the impact of heavy metal pollution on soil animal communities from two contaminated zones of coal mine waste rock pile and abandoned chemical plant in Datong, Huainan City. Results showed that a total of 2286 soil fauna individuals belonging to 24 groups, 8 classes, and 4 phyla were observed. The dominant groups were Collembola, Nematoda and Acarina, which accounted for 56.82% of the total groups, and the others were frequent or rare groups. Heavy metal pollution had a great influence on soil animals. As the pollution aggravates, the individual numbers, groups of soil animals presented a declining trend. Besides, the evenness, diversity and density-group index of community also declined. The dominance index gradually declined in the zone of coal mine waste rock pile while decreased first and then increased in the contaminated zone of abandoned chemical plant. Species diversity of soil animal communities decreased because of the heavy metal pollution, and the community structure tended to be simple. Heavy metal pollution showed a significant negative correlation with community structure index, but a poor correlation with soil organic matter and other nutrients. With the pollution level increasing, the surface gathering characteristics gradually disappeared.

Key words: Loess Plateau hilly region, niche characteristics, environmental interpretation., abandoned grassland