A comparison of pitfall trapping and the Winkler method for investigating soil arthropod diversity: a case study on the
Author of the article:HUANG JieLing1**HU Guang2YUAN JinFeng2LUO YuanYuan1
Author's Workplace：1. College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou310018, China; 2. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310058, China
Key Words：soil arthropod, sampling methods, Thousand Island Lake, landbridge island, research scales
Abstract： The Winkler method and pitfall trapping are two conventional methods used for soil fauna surveys, with each having advantages at different aspects and scales. In autumn 2010, we select 15 different areas of the island, we compared the efficiencies of these methods for collecting soil arthropods on landbridge islands in the Thousand Island Lake (TIL), Zhejiang, China. The results show that, Taxon richness was not significantly different between the two methods but the diversity indices were significantly different. The Winkler method is superior to pitfall trapping in collecting soil arthropods, especially for those taxa with slower movement and smaller territories, whereas pitfall trapping is more inclined to collect more mobile species. The samplebased rarefaction curves showed that the Winkler method can quickly achieve the basic list of local soil arthropods with fewer samples, and is thus recommended for smaller islands, whereas pitfall traps can capture more taxa on the larger islands. Analysis of ChaoJaccard similarity coefficients showed significant differences between the community compositions estimated by the two methods on large islands. This suggests that large scale sampling requires the use of both methods to improve the integrity and reliability of data.