Comparison of Soil Biology Quality in Organically and Conventionally Managed Agro-Ecosystems Using Microarthropods

Cristina Mantoni,Simone Fattorini,Donato Silveri,Maria Del Gallo,Marika Pellegrini,Loretta Pace,Leonardo Dapporto

doi:10.3390/agriculture11101022

Cristina Mantoni, Simone Fattorini + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11101022

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Journal: Agriculture	Publication Date: Oct 19, 2021
Citations: 11	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of L'Aquila, University of Florence

Abstract

Since management practices profoundly influence soil characteristics, the adoption of sustainable agro-ecological practices is essential for soil health conservation. We compared soil health in organic and conventional fields in the Abruzzi region (central Italy) by using (1) the soil biology quality (QBS) index (which expresses the level of specialisation in soil environment shown by microarthropods) and (2) microarthropod diversity expressed by Hill numbers. QBS values were calculated using both the original formulation based on only presence/absence data and a new abundance-based version. We found that organic management improves soil biology quality, which encourages the use of organic farming to maintain soil health. Including arthropod abundance in QBS calculation does not change the main outcomes, which supports the use of its original, speedier formulation. We also found that agricultural fields included in protected areas had greater soil health, which shows the importance of the matrix in determining agricultural soil health and highlights the importance of land protection in preserving biodiversity even in managed soils. Finally, we found that soil biology quality and microarthropod community structure are distinctly influenced by certain physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, which supports the use of microarthropods as biological indicators.

Highlights

Soils are a fundamental component of terrestrial ecosystems, for which they play many essential services [1,2,3,4]
We found that agricultural fields included in protected areas had greater soil health, which shows the importance of the matrix in determining agricultural soil health and highlights the importance of land protection in preserving biodiversity even in managed soils
We found that soil biology quality and microarthropod community structure are distinctly influenced by certain physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, which supports the use of microarthropods as biological indicators

Summary

Introduction

Soils are a fundamental component of terrestrial ecosystems, for which they play many essential services [1,2,3,4]. In agro-ecosystems, management practices influence many soil quality characteristics, such as biodiversity, stability, level of internal nutrients, and resilience to disturbance or stress [8]. The adoption of sustainable agro-ecological practices is essential for the conservation of soil health [9,10]. Preventing the decline in soil animal communities in agro-ecosystems is a key ecological strategy to effectively combine productive and sustainability goals [16]. Comparative studies on biodiversity in conventional and organic fields indicated that organic farming exerts a beneficial effect on the biodiversity of agro-ecosystems [17,18,19,20,21,22] and, in particular, on their soil quality and biodiversity [23,24,25,26]

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