Population fluctuation in soil meso- and macrofauna by the successive application of pig slurry

Rodrigo Ferreira Da Silva,Cassiano Carlos Kuss,Gilvan Moisés Bertollo,Zaida Inês Antoniolli,Geomar Mateus Corassa

doi:10.5935/1806-6690.20160026

Rodrigo Ferreira Da Silva, Cassiano Carlos Kuss + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5935/1806-6690.20160026

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Abstract

Pig farming has increased in recent years, resulting in the production of a large quantity of liquid manure, which can be used as a source of organic fertiliser. The aim of this work was to determine the influence of pig slurry on the community of soil fauna in a system of direct seeding. The study was carried out in an experimental area in the town of Taquarucu do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The experimental design was of randomised blocks in a (4 + 1) x 4 factorial scheme, comprising five fertilisation treatments, 0 (no fertiliser), 20, 40 and 80 m 3 of pig slurry ha -1 and one additional treatment (mineral fertiliser), with four evaluations corresponding to the number of slurry application (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th application), and four replications. The soil fauna was sampled using PROVID traps. The following were evaluated: the relative frequency of the groups of soil fauna, the populations of springtails and mites, density, richness, Simpson's dominance index and the Shannon diversity index. The populations of mites and springtails, and indices of diversity, richness and dominance are influenced by the successive application of pig slurry. Successive applications of pig slurry increase the diversity of the soil fauna by reducing the population of organisms of the Order Collembola. Canonical correlation analysis showed an association between the number of springtails and 80 m 3 of pig -1 after the third application.

Highlights

In Brazil, pig farming is an activity generally found on small farms in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and Santa Catarina (GIROTTO et al, 2010)
The organisms of soil fauna collected in the traps belonged to the following taxonomic groups: Acarina, Aranae, Collembola, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, larvae and Hymenoptera (Table 1)
There was no significant interaction between the factors of variation in dose and number of applications; no simple effect was seen for the dose, nor for the difference in mineral fertiliser (MF) in relation to the dose of pig slurry, for the relative frequency of the groups of soil fauna (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

In Brazil, pig farming is an activity generally found on small farms in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and Santa Catarina (GIROTTO et al, 2010). The need to discard this waste, and the technical and financial limitations on implementing more complex treatment solutions, leads producers to dispose of the slurry on agricultural land (DAL BOSCO et al, 2008). Tessaro et al (2013), evaluating the effect of the application of pig slurry on the density and diversity of soil macrofauna, noted that the edaphic groups displayed different responses to the treatments, the most significant being those of the groups of Hymenoptera and Collembola, with a substantial increase in ant density up to a dose of 200 m3 ha-1. Antoniolli et al (2006) demonstrated the higher density of the Order Collembola, together with Acarina, in places that had received 80 m3 of pig slurry ha-1. While in tests for toxicity, the heavy metals Cu and Zn, present in the pig slurry, was reported as being lethal to the Collembola group (SEGAT, 2012)

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