Mesofauna Abundance and Soil Properties in Various Soil Améliorants and Percentage of Urea Fertilizer Dosage in Sugar Cane Plantation

Abstract

The research was conducted in the experimental garden of the Lampung State Polytechnic.. The study was designed using a Randomized Block Design (RBD) arranged in a split plot consisting of two treatment factors with three replications. The first factor is the zeolite soil repairer as the main plot and the second factor is the dose of urea fertilizer as the sub-plot. The main plot is soil repairing treatment which consists of two levels, namely zeolite soil repairer and zeolite soil repairer 0.8 kg.8 m row of plants-1. Sub-plots were treated with a percentage dose of urea fertilizer which consisted of three levels, namely urea 0.36 kg.8 m row of plants-1 (100%), urea 0.28 kg.8 m row of plants-1 (80%), and urea 0, 31 kg.8 m row of plants-1 (60%). The aim of the study was to obtain soil enhancer, the percentage of N fertilizer, the interaction of soil améliorant and the percentage of N fertilizer, on the abundance of soil mesofauna in sugarcane plant cane. The results showed that the zeolite soil améliorant treatment, the percentage dose of urea fertilizer and the interaction of the zeolite soil enhancer and the percentage dose of urea fertilizer did not show any effect on the mesofauna population, mesofauna diversity index, and soil mesofauna dominance index. Soil mesofauna in various treatments in plant cane sugarcane found five groups of soil mesofauna (Acarina, Coleoptera, Collembola, Hymenoptera, Symphyla) and the rest were not included in these five orders. The highest mesofauna population was found in the treatment of zeolite 0.8 kg.8 m row of plants-1and urea 0.36 kg.8 m row of plants-1 (100%) which was 115 dm-3, while the lowest mesofauna was found in the treatment without soil enhancer zeolite and urea 0.28 kg.8 m juringan-1 (80%) as many as 31 tails.dm-3. Mesofauna diversity index in each treatment was low, namely H’ ranging from 0.81 to 0.98. The mesofauna dominance index in each treatment was close to zero or only dominated by one type of soil mesofauna, the order Acarina. The results showed that there were not significantly different and positively correlated or showed a unidirectional relationship between soil chemical properties and population, diversity index, and soil mesofauna dominance index.