Soil Arthropod Responses in Agroecosystem: Implications of Different Management and Cropping Systems

Abstract

<jats:p>The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2014–2020) on soil management points to the combination of sustainable food production with environmental protection, reduction of CO2 emissions, and safeguarding of soil biodiversity. In this study, three farms (in the Emilia-Romagna region), managed with both conventional and conservation practices (the last ones with and without sub-irrigation systems), were monitored from 2014 to 2017 to highlight the impact of different crops and soil managements on soil arthropods, in terms of abundance, composition, and soil biological quality (applying QBS-ar index). To do this, linear mixed models were performed, whereas arthropods assemblages were studied through PERMANOVA and SIMPER analysis. Soil communities varied among farms, although most differences were found among crops depending on management practices. Nonetheless, conservation systems and a wider reduction in anthropogenic practices provided better conditions for soil fauna, enhancing QBS-ar. Moreover, arthropod groups responded to soil practices differently, highlighting their sensitivity to agricultural management. Community assemblages in corn and wheat differed between managements, mainly due to Acari and Collembola, respectively. In conservation management, wheat showed the overall greatest abundance of arthropods, owing to the great number of Acari, Collembola, and Hymenoptera, while the number of arthropod groups were generally higher in crop residues of forage.</jats:p>

Comparison of Soil Biology Quality in Organically and Conventionally Managed Agro-Ecosystems Using Microarthropods

“…We also found that crop type may have a role in determining soil biology health, as already observed in other agricultural contexts [79]. However, because of unbalanced sampling, we cannot disentangle the possible effect of crop type from those of management and land protection, and further research is needed to explore the role of crop type.…”

“…Arthropods are the most abundant and diversified group among soil faunas [53], and in agro-ecosystems they provide essential ecological services, including the decomposition of crop residues to form humus and the recycling of mineral nutrients for successive crops [54][55][56]. Owing to their ability to respond to variations in environmental conditions, soil properties, and changes in land management, soil arthropods are gaining increasing interest as effective indicators of soil biology quality [27,31,40,[57][58][59][60], especially in agroecosystems or polluted or degraded sites [6,38,48,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79].…”

“…More generally, since the taxonomic diversity and species abundance of the edaphic arthropods are highly dependent on species' tolerance limits to environmental conditions [84,85], the study of microarthropod community structure may add significant information on the soil status [6,16,26,41,78,79,[86][87][88][89][90].…”

Groundcover Mulching in Mediterranean Vineyards Improves Soil Chemical, Physical and Biological Health Already in the Short Term

“…Specifically, QBS under S was significantly higher (+48%) than in the treatments receiving tillage, while BCM did not show any significant differences. Tillage is known to be a practice that hampers microarthropod communities by modifying chemical and physical soil properties, thereby negatively impacting QBS values [93,95]. Indeed, higher QBS scores were reported on arable lands when no-till + crop residue retention was compared with conventional tillage [96,97].…”

Effect of Long-Term Soil Management Practices on Tree Growth, Yield and Soil Biodiversity in a High-Density Olive Agro-Ecosystem

“…Several approaches and multivariate methods have been recently developed to detect the changes in the microarthropod community structure and to exploit its actual bioindication power [21]. Soil biodiversity loss, i.e., the reduction of living forms (in terms of both quantity and variety) and their related roles, cause a deterioration of the soil functions or ecosystems [22][23][24][25]. The soil status can be assessed by the functional biodiversity; by this, microarthropods can be characterized based on diverse feeding strategies and different adaptation degrees allowing them to inhabit soil microhabitats [26].…”