Effect Of Ecosystem Changes On Air-Borne And Vegetation-Dwelling Arthropods In Agu-Awka Area Of Awka

The study on the impact of ecosystem changes on air-borne and vegetation-dwelling arthropods was carried out in the Agu-Awka area of Awka, Anambra State capital. Areas investigated were roadsides, cultivated agricultural, built-up, uncultivated agricultural and forest sites using the sweep net for arthropods on vegetation and the sticky trap for ar-borne flyng arthropods The forest site acted as control. Ecosystem changes from close forest to open environments reduced species richness for vegetation-dwelling arthropods but increased the species richness of ar-borne arthropods. For the vegetation-dwelling fauna, the forest site recorded 14 species while the disturbed built-up sites had only4 species. The differences between the sites were significant (P 0.05). The ecosystem change decreased significantly the species abundance of vegetation-dwelling arthropods fom 42 in the forest to 14 in the built-up sites (P 0.05). The species diversity for the vegetation-dwelling arthropods decreased significantly from 0.856 in the forest to 0.384 in the built-up sites (P Keywords : Ecosystem change, Flying insects, Vegetation-dwelling arthropods, Agu-Awka Animal Research International Vol. 3 (2) 2006 pp. 451-456