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Soil Macrofauna Abundance and Taxonomic Richness under Long-Term No-Till Conservation Agriculture in a Semi-Arid Environment of South Africa
| Content Provider | MDPI |
|---|---|
| Author | Zulu, Samukelisiwe G. Motsa, Nozipho M. Sithole, Nkanyiso J. Magwaza, Lembe S. Ncama, Khayelihle |
| Copyright Year | 2022 |
| Description | Soil macrofauna are a critical component for ecosystem function and strongly affect production sustainability. The effect of fertiliser management practices, in different cropping systems, on soil macrofauna communities remains poorly understood in semi-arid to arid regions. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of tillage practices i.e., no-till (NT), rotational tillage (RT) and conventional tillage (CT) and nitrogen fertiliser application rates (0, 100 and 200 kg/ha N) (urea) on abundance and order diversity of soil macrofauna in a maize continuous monocropping system. The sampling of macrofauna in the trial was conducted in April 2019, August 2019 and March 2020 using 25 cm × 25 cm × 25 cm steel monoliths in randomly selected positions, and this was replicated four times. The study found a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the abundance of soil macrofauna in NT (127 $ind/m^{2}$) and RT (110 $ind/m^{2}$) compared to CT (51 $ind/m^{2}$) treatment. The abundance of macrofauna was also negatively affected by increasing the rate of fertiliser, with 0, 100 and 200 kg/ha resulting in 133, 94 and 62 $ind/m^{2}$. Orders Haplotaxida and Diplopoda were found to be sensitive to increases in the fertiliser application rate. Haplotaxida (48.4%) was the most abundant order, followed by Coleoptera (18.2%). Other orders included Diplopoda (9.2%), Gastropoda (6.3%), Isoptera (4.7%), Chilopoda (4.7%), Araneae (4%), Hymenoptera (3.2%), Orthoptera (0.9%) and Dermaptera (0.3%). No-till (NT) and rotational tillage (RT) with mulch favoured the establishment of various macrofauna communities in the studied cropping system. |
| Starting Page | 722 |
| e-ISSN | 20734395 |
| DOI | 10.3390/agronomy12030722 |
| Journal | Agronomy |
| Issue Number | 3 |
| Volume Number | 12 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Publisher Date | 2022-03-16 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Agronomy Entomology Conventional Tillage Arthropods Termite Shannon–wiener Index Earthworms |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
