Abstract
Soil cultivation is among the principal factors that determine the structure and properties of soil and also affects the species composition and abundance of soil dwelling arthropods. Carabid beetles are a particularly valuable group of arthropods, the species of which are strongly associated with particular soil environments. This paper discusses the effect of soil tillage on carabid beetle as- semblages. The study was carried out near Olsztyn, in northeastern Poland. Six wheat fields, each cultivated using either, conventional or non-inversion, soil tillage, were chosen. Carabid beetles were caught in Barber's traps from early April to the end of October 2011. In total, 7,486 specimens belonging to 55 species of the family Carabidae were captured. The most numerous were Poecilus cupreus, Pterostichus melanarius, Harpalus rufipes, Anchomenus dorsalis and Carabus granulatus. Differences in the abundance of ground beetles and some life history traits were associated with the two soil tillage systems. In particular, ploughing reduced carabid abundance and resulted in the increased activity of medium-sized zoophages and spring breeders.
Highlights
Arable fields are ecosystems in which the ecological relationships are largely dependent on human intervention
Six of the fields were planted with winter triticale, three of which were subjected to conventional soil tillage, for which furrow slice turning ploughs were used, followed by a tiller harrow to prepare the soil for sowing
The most numerous species living in the winter triticale fields were Poecilus cupreus, Pterostichus melanarius, Harpalus rufipes, Anchomenus dorsalis and Carabus granulatus
Summary
Arable fields are ecosystems in which the ecological relationships are largely dependent on human intervention. Among the typical inhabitants of agricultural landscapes are carabid beetles (Thiele, 1977; Holland & Luff, 2000; Aleksandrowicz et al, 2008; Wamser et al, 2012) In terms of their abundance, species composition and life history parameters they are highly sensitive to changes in microenvironments and disturbances caused by human activities. Carabids are a important group of animals in arable fields These beetles, which are mostly predators, contribute to the biological control of pests (Hengeveld, 1980; Lövei & Sunderland, 1996; Sunderland, 2002; Hurej & Twardowski, 2006; Saska, 2007). Damage of soil organisms by ploughing causes their death and destroys the associations between soil organisms, which adversely affect the condition of the soil (Arshad, 1999; Kromp, 1999; Holland & Luff, 2000; Marasas et al, 2001)
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