Grassland Insect Diversity and Its Influencing Factors in Central Inner Mongolia
In order to explore the key factors affecting grassland insect diversity in central Inner Mongo-lia,this study used the sweeping method to conduct an insect diversity survey in five different grassland types including temperate desert,temperate desertified grassland,temperate typical grassland,temperate meadow grassland,and lowland meadow in Siziwang Banner,Sonid Right Banner,Xilinhot City,and West Ujimqin Banner in central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from July to August 2019.The results showed that a total of 3232 insects of 151 species from 8 orders and 60 families were collected,among which 48 species were Hymenoptera,accounting for 31.79%of the total species.The diversity of insect alpha was the highest in the lowland meadow.while the temperate desert steppe had the lowest values in both the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Margalef richness index,the typical steppe showed the lowest Simpson's dominance index and Pielou's evenness index.The most significant environmental factor was the precipitation in the warmest season,and the insect beta diversity among different grassland types was mainly influenced by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)and the average annual tempera-ture.Thus,reasonable grassland structure protection was the key to protect grassland insect diversity.