Abstract:
The increasing awareness of ecological conservation and the rising demand for safe food has meant that the development of ecological farms has gained momentum with the preservation of ecological land emerging as a critical component of their establishment. Arthropods maintain the stability of agricultural ecosystems and promote sustainable food production. Thus, understanding and evaluating arthropod diversity and its influencing factors across different ecological land types in ecological farms are essential for guiding farm construction and ensuring green production practices. This study investigated the ground-dwelling arthropod diversity and herbaceous vegetation across six ecological land types — waterfront, grassland, orchard, forest land, hedgerow, and bamboo forest — at Yuefeng Island Organic Farm in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China. The arthropod diversity patterns among land types were analyzed and the effects of ecological land type and herbaceous vegetation diversity on arthropod communities were explored. The key findings were as follows: 1) Significant differences in arthropod diversity were observed across ecological land types. Grasslands, hedgerows, and waterfront harbored similar arthropod community compositions, whereas forest land, bamboo forest, and orchards formed another distinct cluster. Although arthropod family richness and abundance did not significantly differ among the land types, orchards had the highest Shannon index and it was significantly greater than that for grassland. There were no significant differences among the other land types. 2) Neutral arthropods dominated the arthropod communities in all land types and comprised the largest proportion of arthropods. The richness indexes of the pest and natural enemy arthropods were not significant different across the land use types, but there were significant differences in their abundances and Shannon indices. The richness and Shannon indexes for neutral arthropods were similar among land types, but their abundances were significantly different. Notably, the natural enemy-to-pest ratio exceeded one in waterfront, forest land, and hedgerow habitats. 3) Herbaceous vegetation traits — richness, coverage, and Shannon index — were negatively correlated with pest arthropod abundance, but were positively correlated with the Shannon diversity index for pest arthropods. No significant correlations were detected between total arthropods, natural enemies, neutral arthropods, and vegetation diversity. This study shows that maintaining diversely vegetated ecological lands can effectively enhance arthropod biodiversity in ecological farm areas, although their roles in sustaining total arthropod numbers and functional arthropod groups differ; orchards strongly support overall biodiversity, whereas hedgerows are most effective for pest regulation; and increasing herbaceous layer diversity can provide suitable habitats for arthropods and mitigate pest outbreaks. These results underscore the importance of vegetation management in ecological farm designs