The soil environment is teeming with living organisms full of biological life and is one of the most abundant and diverse ecosystems on earth. However, due to unsustainable agriculture practices, the fertile topsoil is often lost; the soil becomes useless for agriculture. Therefore, we cannot lose sight of the fundamental role of the soil biological entities in maintaining the sustainability of the soil, and the role of organism's biodiversity in the soil to counter against various stress. Therefore, the main objective of this work is detecting diversity and density of soil invertebrates between a cultivated field (Ladang 2) and uncultivated field (CEFS), Results showed that the highest abundance of invertebrates was recorded at CEFS 834 with 3.7 m2 density and the lowest was in Ladang 2: 225 with 1.2 m2 density, belonging to 35 different morphospecies from 4 Phylum, 4 subphyla, 6 class, 2 subclass, and 19 orders. A total of 15 morphospecies were collected in the cultivated field Ladang 2, while 25 morphospecies were collected in the uncultivated filed CEFS. Out of 25 morphospecies found in this area, 10 were exclusive to this environment. Annelida, Amphipoda, Isopoda, Collembola, and Hymenoptera were the dominant taxa in CEFS, comprising: 8.15%, 10.55%, 17.98%, 14.14%, and 26.97% respectively. But Acarina, Coleoptera, and Insect larva 39.68%, 5.95%, and 3.97% respectively were the dominant taxa in Ladang 2. The diversity was highest in the CEFS (H = 2.29) and lowest in the Ladang2 field (H = 1.74). Unfortunately, many aspects of the soil invertebrates have not been documented in Malaysia. For example, why they become dominant in a certain location and what is the impact on that particular ecosystem. This study showed that it is essential to maintain natural habitat because agricultural practices have a major influence on soil invertebrate diversity and hopefully through this study able to suggest sound agriculture management to safeguard the soil ecosystems. Due to the limited information about soil invertebrates in Malaysia and the limited scope of this study, it is premature to make any conclusion and therefore warrant further studies.
The invertebrate species play different roles above and below ground in a soil ecosystem. They are also responsible for a complex interaction, which is manifested in soils as self-organized systems of different sizes and functions. These invertebrates are sensitive to any changes in land management activities and soil physio-chemical properties. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the ecosystem functions of soil invertebrates from different agriculture fields and establish the relationships of soil physio-chemical properties. Soil samples were collected from four different fields: three are from the main campus, namely Universiti Putra Malaysia (Center of Environmental and Forensic Studies (CEFS), papaya and organic farm), and one is from Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. The soil physical properties, such as moisture, temperature, particle size, bulk density, and soil porosity, were recorded. Soil chemical properties (EC, pH, total C&N, C/N ratio, organic matter, extractable P, Ca, Mg, K, and Na, CEC) were also determined. Pitfall traps and Berlese funnel were used as sampling methods. The invertebrates were stored in 70% ethanol and identified using soil invertebrate morphological classification, which was classified based on body size and biological functional groups. Macrofauna composition in the papaya farm was abundant from other sites at 80.44%, and ecosystem engineers comprised 39.56%. By contrast, mesofauna was abundant with 43.22% in organic farms, and litter transformers were abundant in CEFS at 54.05%. Meanwhile, microfauna was high in organic farms at 2.85%. Predatory populations were also high in Nilai farm at 49.29%. The CCA analysis showed that the physical and chemical properties of soil influence soil fauna density and diversity. The present finding concludes that the activities of ecosystem functions of soil invertebrates were considerably affected by agricultural and management activities
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