Associations Between Different Soil Management Practices, Soil Fauna and Maize Yield

Abstract

Soil fauna play an important role in ecosystems, and in this context, it is important to better understand how the abiotic and biotic drivers of these organisms interact. We hypothesize that soil fauna are affected by different soil management practices, which has an influence on maize grain yields. The aim of this study was to evaluate the structure of soil fauna under different soil management practices and their associations with maize grain yield. The experiment was conducted in Maranhão, Brazil, in an area divided into 24 plots of 4 × 10 m in a randomized block design with six treatments with four replicates (R). Pitfall traps were placed in the area. The treatments were Leucaena leucocephala-Leucaena (L), nitrogen (N), humic acid + nitrogen (HA + N), nitrogen + Leucaena (N + L), humic acid + Leucaena (HA + L) and humic acid + nitrogen + Leucaena (HA + N + L). The soil fauna dominance, abundance, richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Pielou evenness index and maize grain yield were determined. Formicidae was clearly affected by management with Leucaena, while Coleoptera was affected by management with nitrogen. Despite this, Isopoda and Diplura were the only groups associated with the maize yield. Although fauna abundance did not differ among treatments, it was related to the yield. This study confirms that the abundance and some taxa of soil fauna can influence yield and that these organisms can be used to increase agricultural sustainability.

Diversity of Edaphic Fauna in Different Soil Occupation Systems

“…The higher Shannon diversity in the area with soybean results from the presence of equally distributed groups; dominance was not observed in this area. Shannon diversity values above 1 indicate that the diversity of soil fauna is high and similar values have been reported in other studies (SIQUEIRA et al, 2014(SIQUEIRA et al, , 2016MARTINS et al, 2018).…”

“…These differences were expected because the area with millet showed greater abundance and dominance of a specific group (Acari -5,772 individuals - Figure 3) and the area occupied by eucalyptus had a dominance of Poduromorpha (2,098 individuals - Figure 3), contributing to the high values of abundance and lower values of richness (Table 3). According to Martins et al (2018), the variations in the number of individuals and taxon of the edaphic fauna is a reflection of the soil occupation system, which provides a greater or lesser contribution of biomass to the system. Studying the diversity of soil fauna in different systems of land use and occupation, Yin et al (2019) concluded that occupation systems with a lower degree of soil disturbance affect the meso and soil macro fauna to a lesser degree.…”

“…Soil arthropods that correlate with soil occupation with pasture, soybean and maize growing have different ecological functions and relationships with agricultural systems, and the relationship is often determined by selective feeding habits due to the high content and availability of. These are considered insect pests as they cause high losses to agriculture (MARTINS et al, 2018).…”

“…These changes to the soil occupation have a direct influence on the communities (SIQUEIRA; SILVA; PAZ-FERREIRO, 2014) and ecology (RODRIGUES et al 2016;SIQUEIRA et al, 2016) of edaphic fauna. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how the epigeal fauna reflects the different uses and management practices of soil (ROUSSEAU et al, 2014;MARTINS et al, 2018).…”

Multifractal analysis of soil fauna diversity indexes

“…Biological diversity was higher for soybean area (Shannon = 2.69), followed by maize (Shannon = 2.42), pasture Shannon = 2.42), eucalyptus (Shannon = 2.08), disturbed cerrado (Shannon = 1.85), millet (Shannon = 1.44) and preserved cerrado (Shannon = 0.73). Studying soil fauna in agroforestry systems, Martins et al (2018) found Shannon values ranging from 1.401 to 1.877. This demonstrates that the diversity values for the present study are superior to those of Martins et al (2018).…”