| Recently, much attention has been paid to soil fauna because they play an important role in nutrient cycling as a potential bioindicator of soil fertility in the forest ecosystem. However, there is lack of the information on soil fauna in Eucalyptus grandis plantation, which is difficult to meet the needs of man-made forest management. The composition, dominant groups, seasonal dynamics and distribution in soil profile of soil fauna in Eucalyptus grandis plantation were investigated here to understand the nutrient cycling, provide the information on changes in soil fertility, and evaluate the ecological effects of Eucalyptus grandis plantation. Soil macrofauna were picked up by hand in the field, while mesofauna were separated and collected from the soil samples by Baermann and Tullgren funnels, respectively. Soil protozoa were collected and counted from fresh soil. The results were showed as follows:(1) By preliminary identification, there were 15228 specimens of soil fauna, which belonged to 33 orders, 14 classes and 7 phyla (not including soil protozoa) in Eucalyptus grandis plantation. Acarina, Collembola, Nematoda were dominant groups and Hymenoptera, Enchytraeidae were frequent groups, all the other 29 groups were scarce groups with low individual percentage. It indicated that the distribution of soil fauna in Eucalyptus grandis plantation was not even.(2) The group and individual number of soil macrofauna and mesofauna collected by Tullgren funnels in Eucalyptus grandis plantation were highest in Autumn and lowest in Spring; however, which of mesofauna collected by Baermann funnels were highest in Winter and lowest in Spring. The density of soil protozoa was highest in Summer and lowest in Winter.(3) The group and individual number, as well as density of soil animals in soil...
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