Morphological Diversity of Springtails in Land Use Systems

Abstract

Springtails (Collembola) are soil organisms with wide morphological diversity and are sensitive to alterations in the soil, regardless of whether they are human-caused or not. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of land use on the morphological diversity of springtails and verify their relationships with soil physical, chemical, and microbiological properties. Samples were collected in the eastern region of Santa Catarina, in three municipalities: Joinville, Blumenau, and Timbó. They included the following land use systems (LUSs): native forest (NF), Eucalyptus plantation (EP), pasture (PA), integrated crop-livestock (ICL), and no tillage (NT). Samples were collected to determine soil properties, and pitfall traps were set in the winter and summer at the same points. The captured springtails were counted and morphotyped, observing features such as presence or absence of ocelli and setae, pigmentation, antenna length, and furcula length. The data were analyzed based on abundance, the Shannon-Wiener (H') and Margalef diversity indices, Pielou's evenness index (J), morphotype richness, modified Soil Biological Quality index (QBS), and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Springtails abundance was higher in ICL and PA, whereas morphotype richness was higher in NF and ICL in the winter. The Shannon-Wiener and Margalef indices were higher in the winter in NF. In the summer, only H' differed significantly among the LUSs and was higher in NF. The QBS values did not precisely follow the human intervention gradient in either of the two periods. The PCA showed difference among the periods and LUSs. In the winter, the occurrence of morphotypes was related to soil microbiological and chemical properties, whereas in the summer, the distribution of morphotypes was explained by soil physical and chemical properties. Morphological diversity analysis is a good alternative to study springtail distribution and soil biological quality, especially when associated with multivariate techniques.

Morphological diversity of springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) as soil quality bioindicators in land use systems

“…Higher values for the Margalef index were determined in regions containing pastures, indicating higher springtails diversity compared to others areas as observed elsewhere (Santos et al 2018). In general, the Margalef index were lower than 2.0 in the southern plateau of the state of Santa Catarina as observed in the east plateau studied by Santos et al (2018), indicating low organism diversity and potential environmental impact.…”

“…According to Sousa et al (2006), pasture areas are more important for the development and growth of springtails than agricultural areas due to anthropological actions during the planting of different crops. Accordingly, lower abundance and richness of springtails were experimentally determined for agricultural soils from the southern plateau of the state of Santa Catarina (Santos et al 2018), indicating that intense land use systems increase the impacts on the environment. However, the springtails biodiversity increases in intense agro-ecosystems containing perennial pastures without using agrochemicals (Gardi et al 2002).…”

“…Each springtails morphotype was identified by determining the eco-morphological index as described by Parisi (2001Parisi ( , 2005. The springtails adaptations and codifications were studied according to the methodologies described by Vandewalle et al (2010), Parisi (2001Parisi ( , 2005, Oliveira Filho et al 2016, Reis et al (2016), Silva et al (2016) and Santos et al (2018). In this case, five traits were evaluated for each springtail including antennal length, size of furca, presence of ocelli (the authors mentioned above used the presence or absence, regardless of the number, which makes the evaluation faster), pigmentation, and presence of hairs and/or scales along the body (considered only macro hairs/scales).…”

“…This sensitivity can be used for indicating pollution levels in different land use systems (Eaton et al 2004, Larsen et al 2004, Baretta et al 2008, Rieff et al 2014. In this sense, different springtails communities have been widely used as soil environmental quality bioindicators in studies of environmental pollution related with the land use systems (Parisi et al 2005, Winck et al 2017, Santos et al 2018. The springtails communities are divided in edaphic, hemiedaphic and epigeic organisms.…”

“…The greater the soil environmental quality, higher the number of microarthropods adapted to this soil, indicating lower environmental pollution indexes. The different springtails and Coleoptera morphotype classifications in soils have been used as environmental tools for studying sustainable land use systems (Vandewalle et al 2010, Reis et al 2016, Pompeo et al 2017, Santos et al 2018. In this case, the soil use was correlated with the organism morphotypes and soil biological quality index (Qualità Biologica del Suelo -QBS).…”