Abstract: We investigated the characteristics and influencing factors of soil arthropod community in “Shushanggan” apricot forests in Huocheng County of the Ili River Valley with different stand ages, including 4-, 8-, 10- and 14-year-old apricot forests and with barren land as the control. Soil arthropods were sampled by the Tullgren’s funnel method. We analzed the characteristics of the soil arthropod community and their relationship with environmental factors. The results showed that dominant groups of soil arthropods increased with the stand ages, with significant changes in common and rare groups. Dominant, common, and rare groups appeared in 14-, 10-, and 4-year-old “Shushanggan” apricot forests, respectively. The highest soil arthropod density and group number appeared in 14- and 4-year-old “Shushanggan” apricot forests, respectively. The vertical distribution of soil arthropod communities showed an aggregation in surface soil layer, with both density and group number decreasing downwards. The Shannon diversity index and evenness index of soil arthropods in 10-year-old “Shushanggan” apricot forests were the highest, while the dominance index was highest in 14-year-old “Shushanggan” apricot forests. Soil arthropod abundance was positively correlated with soil organic matter and total nitrogen (P<0.001). Results of redundancy analysis showed that axes 1 and 2 together explained 86.16% of the variation in community composition. Soil total nitrogen, organic matter, and available phosphorus were the main factors affecting the distribution of soil arthropod communities in “Shushanggan” apricot forests. Overall, there were significant changes in soil arthropod community composition, especially dominant groups, after the conversion of fallow land to “Shushanggan” apricot forests and during stand development. Our results provide scientific support for the planting and management of local “Shushanggan” apricot forests and the healthy development of forest fruit industry.

Key words: “Shushanggan” apricot, soil fauna, diversity, soil physicochemical property