Structure of Soil Food Web in Smallholder Cocoa Plantation, South Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

An understanding of the structure of the soil food web is critical in determining the practices of soil fertility management based on the biological processes in tropical agricultural regions. The objectives of the study were to assess the variation in trophic level biomass and to analyze the dynamics of the energy channels on the increasing age of cocoa plantation. The characteristics of soil food web structure in smallholder cocoa plantation aged 4, 5, 7, 10, and 16 years were analyzed. The results showed that only biomass at the third trophic level increased with plantation age, but not for the biomass at the lower trophic levels. Biomass in all energy channels did not increased as well along with plantation age. We concluded that variation in the soil food web structure was more influenced by biotic factors of macro-arthropods group, such as facilitation, recolonization capabilities and accessibility in the soil habitat of smallholder cocoa plantation.

Quality of soil from the nickel mining area of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, engineered using earthworms (Pheretima sp.)

“…Total free-living nematodes in the soil were extracted following a modified Baermen Funnel technique (Kilowasid et al, 2014). Moreover, a total of 250 g of fresh soil samples from each pot were extracted following the Baermen funnel technique for 48 hours.…”

Use of Biochar to Control Root-Feeding Soil Nematodes on Muna Local Tomatoes Variety

“…The CI value in the B3 treatment was below 50 (CI = 46.40); this means that sufficient food resources are available for the decomposition process and nutrient mineralization through the bacterial energy pathway. The bacterial energy pathway explains that decomposition and nitrogen mineralization rate is faster than the fungal energy pathway (Holtkamp et al 2011;Kilowasid et al 2014). Increasing the nitrogen mineralization rate will have implications for increased nitrogen availability in the soil solution so that bacterial biomass increases and has a significant impact on fungal predation (Carrillo et al 2016).…”