Abstract
The arthropod community structure in wolfberry orchards of different management regimes were monitored from April to
August in 2012 at Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of Northwestern China. The three different management regimes included
(1) orchard free of pesticide, (2) organic orchard, and (3) conventional orchard. Totally, 167 species (4 classes, 27 orders, and
76 families) contained 61 natural enemy species and 106 pest species were recorded in the experiment. The species richness
of the orchard free of pesticide, organic orchard with biological control and conventional orchard with chemical control was
61, 30 and 23 species, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding coefficients in the orchard free of pesticide, conventional
orchard and organic orchard were 0.864, 0.684 and 0.733, respectively. The different modules of pests varied in their responses
to environmental factors depending on different feeding types. The linkage between arthropod community and environmental
factors indicated that vegetation diversity, plant coverage, pesticide application and irrigation times exerted detectable
contrasting effects on arthropod community and population dynamics. Finally, we suggest that habitat management (i.e.
increase in plant cover and diversity) may serve as effective tactics for preventing pest population from reaching the economic
injury level which minimizing the input of pesticides and fertilizers.
