[Cluster analysis on the temporal dynamics of arthropod community in a plum orchard]

In this paper, twelve investigations were conducted on the structural feature of arthropod community in a plum orchard, and a cluster analysis was made on the temporal dynamics of the community. The total community could be clustered into 5 clusters (D = 0.2000), i.e., that in March, in June, in July, in November, and in other months. The natural enemy and pest-neutral sub-communities could be also clustered into 5 clusters, respectively. For natural enemy sub-community, the clusters (D = 0.2000) were that in March, in July, in August, in September and October, and in other months, and for pest-neutral sub-community, they (D = 0.1000) were that in April, in July, in June, in November, and in other months. The results of cluster analysis partly reflected the seasonal differences of total community and sub-communities, while the temporal overlaps of cluster results reflected the complexity of community structure. Based on the optimization cut-apart, both the total community and the sub-communities were divided into 5 stages, i.e., 6 April as the first stage, 27 April to 8 June as the second stage, 27 June to 27 August as the third stage, 21 September to 19 October as the forth stage, and 22 November as the fifth stage.