Affiliation(s)
1. Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), CEP 13418-260 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
2. Embrapa Cerrados, CEP 73301-970 Planaltina, Distrito Federal, Brazil
3. Embrapa Florestas, CEP 83411-000 Colombo, PR, Brazil
4. Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, CEP 89815-630 Chapecó, SC, Brazil
5. Agricultural Sector, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CEP 80035-050 Curitiba, PR, Brazil
ABSTRACT
The soil mesofauna plays a role in organic
matter comminution and decomposition, and can be used as bioindicators, since they are sensitive to soil
management, vegetation and climate changes. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate
mesofauna density and diversity in different land use systems to identify
faunal relationships with soil properties, management and seasonality. The
study area included five land use systems in Ponta Grossa municipality, Paraná
State: integrated crop-livestock (ICL), integrated crop-livestock-forestry
(ICLF), grazed native pasture (NP), Eucalyptus
dunnii plantation (EU) and no-tillage (NT) cropping systems. In each system, eight soil samples for mesofauna were collected with
Berlese funnels of 8 cm diameter along a transect in three replicate plots of
50 m × 100 m. For physical
and chemical analysis, soil was sampled at five points per plot in two seasons: winter 2012 and
autumn 2013. Data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Duncan’s test (P < 0.05), nonparametric statistics (when necessary) and
redundancy analysis (RDA). Diversity was calculated based on the group richness
and Simpson index. The main mesofauna groups found were: Acarina, Collembola
and Hymenoptera. Diplopoda, Enchytraeidae, Isopoda, Collembola, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera
and Coleoptera larvae were more abundant in autumn than winter. Soil moisture
was the main factor responsible for higher mesofauna abundance in autumn. Integrated production
systems, especially ICLF had similar invertebrate community abundance and
composition with EU, while NT favored
Oribatid mites, although the use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides reduced total mesofauna density. Most correlations
between mesofauna and physical-chemical attributes in the winter were not
observed in the autumn and vice versa, revealing that there are more factors involved in regulating
soil mesofauna distribution.
KEYWORDS
Soil invertebrates, biodiversity, soil management, bioindicators, seasonality,
moisture.
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