A Rapid Assessment of the Existence (or Survival) of Macro Fauna in Different Land Uses in Kween District of Mount Elgon

Abstract

Objective We explored the effect of different land uses on soil macro fauna species richness, abundance and diversity in Mount Elgon areas of Kween District, Uganda. ResultsSpecies richness was higher on the subsurface of the different land uses than belowground. A total of 647 individuals of both subsurface and belowground macro fauna were identified from the different land uses. Macro fauna abundance significantly varied across the five different land uses (H=10.1, d.f.=4, p=0.04). The average diversity of the subsurface was higher (0.71) than that belowground (0.20). The highest diversity of macro fauna was found in the intercrop of maize-beans followed by natural vegetation. Maize monocrop had the least abundance and diversity of both surface crawling and belowground macro fauna. This could be due the diversity of food and living environments as mixed cropping introduces landscape heterogeneity that accommodates diverse organisms across different land use systems. This study recommends extended studies on taxonomy, ecology and management of soil macro fauna with detailed inventories on the functional groups across land use/cover types and evaluations of varied agricultural intensification regimes on abundance and diversity of soil above and below ground macro fauna.