Abstract: Four typical habitats, including swampy meadow, grassland meadow, moderately degraded meadow and seriously degraded meadow, were selected in Zoigê wetland, and epigeic arthropod communities were investigated using pitfall traps in May, July, and September 2014, to reveal the effects of alpine meadow degradation on the epigeic arthropod community structure and diversity. A total of 8364 epigeic arthropod individuals were collected during the research periods and classified into 4 classes, 17 orders, and 123 taxonomic groups (family or genus). GeneraEntomobryaand Sphaeridia were the dominant groups in epigeic arthropod communities, andEntomobrya only appeared in the grassland meadow. The diversity index of epigeic arthropods in seriously degraded meadow was significantly lower than in the other habitats, which indicated that the degradation of alpine meadow had a significant effect on the composition of epigeic arthropods. Furthermore, the monthly dynamics in individual number and diversity indices of the epigeic arthropod communities differed among the four habitats. The individual number and richness index of epigeic arthropods in swampy meadow were higher in September than in May and July, but were higher in July for the other habitats. The Shannon diversity index for moderately and seriously degraded meadows varied significantly in different months, and Simpson’s diversity indexamong the four months varied significantly only in seriously degraded meadow. Regression analysis showed that the individual number and diversity of epigeic arthropod communities were affected by the factors of plant communities and soil properties. The results indicated that the degradation of alpine meadow affected the composition and diversity of the epigeic arthropod communities by altering plant communities and soil properties.

Key words: Fengqiu County, the lower reaches of the Yellow River., amphibian, agricultural landscape