Soil Invertebrates Diversity in pure and Mixture Zelkova Stands in Neka Forests

The purpose of this study was to evaluate soil invertebrates diversity in pure and mixture Zelkova stands in Neka forests (Mazandaran-Iran). at the time of study the stands were selected from undisturbed forests. For this purpose, invertebrates were collected in mid-summer, using 20 core soil samples (81 cm2 cross section) to a depth of 10 cm. The invertebrates were extracted by Berlese funnel and counted by Binocular. In addition, 20 soil pits of 100×100 cm2 with 10 cm and 30 cm depth were taken and adult earthworms were collected by hand counting. The results of this research showed that the soil invertebrates diversity (Shanon and Simpson index) with species richness (Margalef index) and species equatibility (Heip index) in the mixture stand of zelkova were greater than the pure stand of zalkova. Of course it must be mentioed that these differences were not statistically significant. Fur the rmore, the frequency and biomass of earthworms in the mixture stand of zelkova was significantly more than the pure stand of zalkova. The results of this research has emphasized the reinforsment of mixture stands in tending operations.