Abstract: Five evergreen broad-leaved forests (one continuous forest and four fragmented forests) in the mountain areas in the juncture of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi Provinces, East China were selected as test objects to study the dynamics of soil arthropod community structure and its responses to forest fragmentation during the decomposition of dominant tree species Castanopsis eyrei leaf litter. A total of 899  soil arthropods were collected, belonging to 9 classes and 25 orders. Lepidoptera was the dominant taxon, accounting for 10% of the individual, while Hymenoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Prostigmata, and Geophilomorpha were the common taxa. The decomposition rate of C. eyrei leaf litter was the highest in August and lower in April-June and December, which was in accordance with the seasonal dynamics of the taxa number and individual number of soil arthropods. Meanwhile, the taxa number, individual number, and species diversity of soil arthropods differed between continuous forest and fragmented forests, suggesting that both area effect and edge effect affected the dynamics of soil arthropod community structure during the decomposition of C. eyrei leaf litter.

Key words: evergreen broad-leaved forest, Castanopsis eyrei, leaf litter decomposition, soil arthropod, community structure, habitat fragmentation