Abstract
Soil arthropods were collected in 1985 and 1986 from the root systems of weeds, corn and wheat within experimental, low-input agroecosystems located in the coastal plain region of North Carolina. Eight treatments forming a gradient from high (conventional tillage) to low (no-tillage) soil disturbance in combination with herbicide (glyphosate, alachlor, atrazine, linuron) and non-herbicide treatments were established in October 1985 in a wheat-soybean-corn rotation. Soil arthropod density was consistently higher ( P < 0.05) under weedy, no-tillage treatments than conventional tillage in both 1985 and 1986. Weed root biomass and soil arthropod number were moderately correlated ( r=0.62, N=17), although arthropod number differed widely among individual weed species. Below ground phytophagous arthropod number from the root systems of corn, dogfennel ( Eupatorium capillifolium), ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisiifolia), lambsquarter ( Chenopodium album) and pigweed ( Amaranthus retroflexus) did not differ significantly ( P > 0.05). However, predaceous arthropod number from dogfennel, ragweed, lambsquarter and pigweed root systems was consistently higher ( P < 0.05) than phytophagous arthropods, suggesting the potential for employing selected weed species as predator refuges.
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