Poultry litter and different cover crops and their effects on the edaphic fauna community of an Oxisol

Abstract

The use of soil cover plants and alternative sources of nitrogen fertilization can promote improvements in the biological characteristics of the soil. The objective of this study was to determine the contribution of the isolated and/or intercropped cultivation of ground cover crops in autumn/winter and the use of poultry litter as a source of N in the wheat crop in succession on the soil mesofauna and macrofauna community. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with split plots, in a factorial arrangement (4 x 4), with three replications. The collections of the edaphic fauna were realized with pitfall traps PROVID in plots of 15 m². The edaphic fauna orders, abundance, Shannon diversity, Simpson dominance, Pielou evenness and the family of organisms of the order Collembola were evaluated. The use of ground cover plants in autumn/winter, induced a greater abundance of edaphic fauna organisms, which were mostly represented by the order Collembola, belonging to the Entomobryidae family. The isolated or intercropped cultivation of cover crops, associated with the use of N via poultry litter, enabled a greater diversity of organisms and a uniform distribution of different groups in the edaphic community.