Seasonal Changes in Biodiversity and Abundance of Invertebrates in Different Ecological Environments

Abstract

Biodiversity is a natural quality that must be measured to be understood. It is the measurement of the quantity and diversity of the biota in an area. Each area of the world has its own unique biodiversity as defined by its' species diversity index number (SDIN) including the state of Qatar. This study was designed to add base knowledge of the ground fauna data of Qatar that can be used to compute this species diversity index number. The purpose of this study is to create a baseline of data of the occurence, dominance, diversity, biomass and seasonal abundance of primarily ground dwelling invertebrates (primarily Arthropods) and to record this in different ecological habitats during ecological seasonal changes in the Northern part of Qatar. This study was conducted on samples obtained weekly from June 2012 through December 2012 in the north of Qatar Passive pitfall traps were used and placed in three different habitats and a farm site. A total of 4953 specimens were captured. 4468 specimens were member of Class Insecta, 110 different species belonging to 10 orders and 49 families of insects. The most numerous taxa were ants (family Formicidae) 54% followed by family Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles) which is 93.5% of beetles and 28.8% of total catch invertebrate totals. Simpson diversity indexes in the sites differed among the different habitats and generally were high. The total dry biomass of all the insects caught was 226g. The most numerous taxa in terms of biomass were darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae), which made up more than 80%. It is recommended that systematic and long term collection of invertebrates in other areas of Qatar be done and the identification of some of the more difficult species is needed. This is only a beginning of the understanding the invertebrate biodiversity of Qatar. It is much more diverse that anticipated.