Assessing spatial variability of soil macro fauna and tree canopy using fractal theory (Case study: Riparian Forest of Maroon River)

Spatial distribution of soil macro-fauna and vegetation are controlled by several parameters. Distribution pattern of these variables have many variations. In current study, auto-correlation function and fractal theory were used to evaluate spatial variability of tree canopy and soil macro fauna diversity in Riparian Forest of Maroon River in Khuzestan. In this research, soil macro fauna were sampled using 175 sampling point along parallel transects (perpendicular to the river). The distance between transects was 100 m. We considered the distance between samples as 50 m. soil macro fauna was extracted from 50 cm×50 cm×10 cm soil monolith by hand-sorting procedure. Evenness (Sheldon index), richness (Menhinick index) and diversity (Shannon H’ index) were determined in each sample. Tree canopy was measured in 5* 5 plots. The results showed that none of the variables had autocorrelation confirming lack of their significant spatial structure. The study of distribution and fractal behavior of variables showed intensive variability in the study area and spatial variability did not have remarkable structure. Fractal dimension of both variables also were high.