Abstract
ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine the multifractality of diversity indexes of edaphic fauna in areas with natural vegetation and in agricultural systems. Biological sampling was carried out in seven treatments (millet, maize, soybean, eucalyptus, preserved cerrado, disturbed cerrado and pasture), containing 130 pitfall traps, distributed in transects with 3 m of spacing between sampling points, totaling 390 m. The multifractal analysis was determined based on the moment method, where estimates such as the capacity dimensions, entropy and the correlation of the diversity indexes were calculated. The soybean area had greater Shannon diversity (2.69), however it had smaller abundance of individuals. The partition functions were adjusted with coefficient of determination > 0.90. The difference between D-10-D10, ranged from 0.080 to 1,707 for Pielou equitability in soybean cultivation, for richness in the area under the cultivation of eucalyptus. The singularity spectra expressed graphs with different degrees of heterogeneity for the soil fauna indexes, and the richness expressed the best structure. The area cultivated with soybean had a monofractal tendency, due to the homogeneous distribution of individuals of the edaphic fauna along the transect. The fractal analysis provided the description of patterns of variability that are not detected by classical methods.
Highlights
The soil fauna is part of a dynamic and heterogeneous system
The natural dynamic of soil fauna is altered with time in agricultural systems
Mueller et al (2015) reported that knowledge of edaphic fauna in agricultural systems is essential for ecological recognition, in the estimate of their activity and for investigating sustainable management systems
Summary
The soil fauna is part of a dynamic and heterogeneous system. This group of organisms has intrinsic properties which have temporal and spatial patterns along the landscape, showing horizontal and vertical variability, which are altered by the management of soil in the agroforestry systems. According to Marichal et al (2014), the soil fauna components and specially the macrofauna have important role in the soil ecosystem and are indicators of services and edaphic functions. In this way, the knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of the soil fauna allows to characterize the different habitats, identifying a series of functional aspects of biodiversity, as well as the understanding of ecosystem functioning (Gholami et al 2017). Few studies are devoted to the investigation of soil fauna in agricultural systems, especially those involving ecological, spatial and temporal modeling Such studies are necessary to understand the dynamic and interactions in agricultural ecosystems, allowing the maintenance of optimum productivity and sustainable development
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