Climatic Impact and Habitat Efficiency on Species Diversity of Plant Mites in an Agri-climatic Zone of Southern West Bengal

The paper deals with the climatic impact and habitat efficiency on species diversity of plant mites and their abundance, species richness and species composition in different agri-horticultural crops of four phytogeographic regions in the southern part of West Bengal. Observational data demonstrate how simultaneously acting climatic factors can affect the structure of plant mite communities in four phytogeographic regions. The study reported acaro-faunistic diversity, their phytogeographic distribution, abundance and potential impact on the environment. The seasonal occurrence of mites, the influence of climatic factors on four selected natural habitats of a given ecosystem (Habitat 1, Habitat 2, Habitat 3 and Habitat 4) and randomly chosen natural habitats of four phytogeographic regions (Forest region, Coastal plain region, Rarh region and Gangetic-Delta region) were recorded. The study found the highest species diversity of plant mites in the Gangetic Delta region. The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was applied to study the relationship between species assemblages and the distribution of associated environmental factors. A total of 1236 individuals belonging to 122 species, 43 genera and 16 families were registered. CCA analysis showed that the Forest region, Coastal Plain region, Rarh region and Gangetic Delta region accounted for 94.99% (axis 1 = 50.1% and axis 2 = 44.89%) patterns of species variability across different phytogeographic sites. The interrelationship between climatic variables, species distribution, their occurrence, abundance and the nature of the plant mites in an agri-horticultural ecosystem from the tropical standpoint were analyzed.