The effects of intercropping different green manure plants on the structure and diversity of arthropod communities in tea plantations
Author of the article:LI Hui-Ling1** GUO Jian-Xiong2 ZHANG Hui1 WANG Ding-Feng1WANG Qing-Sen1 ZENG Ming-Sen1 LIN Nai-
Author's Workplace：1. Tea Research Institute of Fujian Province Academy of Agricultural Science, Fuan 355015, China; 2. Ningde Vocational and Technical College, Fuan 355015, China; 3. Biological Control Research Institute, Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Key Words：tea plantation, green mature plants, intercrop, arthropod community, biodiversity
Abstract： [Objectives] To investigate the effect of intercropping different green manure plants on the structure and diversity of arthropod communities in tea plantations. [Methods] The effects of three different intercropping treatments were assessed; treatment 1(T1) Indigofera spicata + Lotononis bainesii, treatment 2(T2) Chamaecrista rotundifolia + Trifolium repens, and treatment 2(T3) Trifolium repens + Arachis pintoi. The control was a common tea plantation without intercropped green manure plants. [Results] The diversity and species richness (S) of the arthropod community in tea plant canopies that had been intercropped with green manure plants were higher than in the control. The ratio of predators and parasites to pests in tea plantations intercropped with green manure plants was higher than that in the control. Trends in the Shannon-wiener index, Simpson index and Evenness index were similar in all four tea plantations and the similarity of species composition among the different treatments was between 0.741 and 0.892. There were significant positive correlations between numbers of tea pests and numbers of natural enemies within each of the four tea plantations. Grey correlation analysis showed that the correlations between species richness and individual arthropod abundance, natural enemy species richness and pest abundance, and between pest diversity and indices of species diversity and evenness, were relatively high within all four tea plantations, reflecting the stability and diversity of the arthropod communities in these. [Conclusion] Intercropping different green manure plants improves the biodiversity and stability of arthropod communities.