Collembola Community Structure as a Tool to Assess Land Use Effects on Soil Quality

Luís Carlos Iuñes De Oliveira Filho,José Paulo Sousa,Cynthia Akemi Shinozaki Tanaka,Osmar Klauberg Filho,Dilmar Baretta

doi:10.1590/18069657rbcs20150432

Luís Carlos Iuñes De Oliveira Filho, José Paulo Sousa + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/18069657rbcs20150432

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Abstract

Collembolan species are differently affected by soil tillage (conventional, minimum tillage, and no-tillage) and are known to modify plant growth. This study relies on the relationships between Collembola community structures and land use systems as a proxy for characterizing changes in soil quality. Thus, Collembola community structure (eco-morphological groups - edaphic, hemiedaphic and epigeic, and morphotypes) were examined in a no-tillage system and crop-livestock integration system to evaluate the discriminative power of the Collembola community structure and to determine which soil properties drives structural diversity. Thirty-eight morphotypes of Collembola were recorded in this study, 11 belonging to the edaphic eco-morphological group, 14 hemiedaphic, and 13 epigeic. The hemiedaphic and epigeic groups, in the no-tillage system, were more influenced by changes in soil properties (total organic carbon, particulate organic carbon, total N, Ca, Mg, moisture, bulk density) and mycelium length than the groups in the crop-livestock integration system (mycorrhizal inoculum potential, and soil properties as dehydrogenase, particulate organic carbon, Mg, sand). Collembola eco-morphological groups were better predictors for ecosystem functioning than Collembola density and can be used to distinguish differences between soil uses, reducing laboratory analysis time.

Highlights

Soil springtails are good representatives of the diversity of soil fauna (Cassagne et al, 2003) that interacts with ecosystem processes in several ways
An alternative approach has been studied by Parisi (2001), who proposed the concept of eco-morphological (EM) value
The two land use systems (LUS) have the same density of springtails (Figure 2a), the community structure varied based on the EM groups

Summary

Introduction

Soil springtails are good representatives of the diversity of soil fauna (Cassagne et al, 2003) that interacts with ecosystem processes in several ways. These soil microarthropods have significant influence on soil microbial ecology, nutrient cycling, and soil fertility by feeding on soil microorganisms and dead organic matter. Microarthropods respond to a variety of environmental and ecological factors, like changes in soil chemistry, microhabitat configuration, and agricultural practices (Hopkin, 1997). One of the main limitations of Collembola study is the lack of available taxonomists (Zeppelini Filho and Bellini, 2004). An alternative approach has been studied by Parisi (2001), who proposed the concept of eco-morphological (EM) value. The aim of the EM value is to group specimens of each species in accordance with their degree of adaptation to the soil (soil profile and litter layer), ranked according to a specific EM value determination and separated in life-forms (morphotypes)

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