Abstract
Abstract: Brazil has always been one of the most important coffee producing countries. Lately, there has equally been a renewed interest in alternative coffee production systems. The state of Espírito Santo is the second greatest coffee producer in Brazil; so, we used local coffee plantations to evaluate the relations between soil macrofauna and chemical and microbiological soil properties to identify which of these properties discriminate more effectively between the organic management system (OS) and the conventional management system (CS) of coffee plantations. For each of these two cultivation systems we chose three coffee farms who employed both cultivation systems and picked out the most similar fields from each property. At each site, first we sampled the litter at the soil surface. Afterwards, we sampled nine soil monoliths to evaluate the macrofauna, in summer and winter. We also collected nine supplemental soil samples, taken at a few centimeters from the soil monoliths, for chemical and microbiological analyses. Macrofauna density was evaluated by ANOVA and multivariate analysis. The chemical and microbiological properties are environmental variables, while the data on macrofauna are the explanatory variables. The total number of individuals recovered in this study was 3,354, and the climate, identified by the sampling season, was a great modulator of macrofauna, with higher numbers in winter. The principal components analysis showed that soil moisture, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, boron, copper, pH, acid and alkaline phosphatases and microbial biomass carbon, were the most outstanding ones to discriminate both cultivation systems. We found no statistical significant differences in macrofauna density between OS and CS, probably due to a general great variability, since there was a tendency for much greater values in OS. We detected the interference of chemical and microbiological soil properties on the macrofauna community in both systems of coffee cultivation, and some results clearly correlated much better with climate data than with other factors. To our knowledge, this is the first time in which the data point to a clear separation between the more numerous and diversified soil macrofauna in coffee with organic cultivation from that with a conventional cultivation system.
Highlights
In Brazil, most of the Coffea sp. is cultivated on conventional systems
In conventional management system (CS), averages were 3.1 times smaller in summer (300 ± 117 ind. m-2) than in winter (916 ± 859 ind. m-2). In both seasons, there were over 50% more individuals in organic management system (OS) than in CS, there was no statistical significance. This is an indication of a strong tendency of OS to maintain greater numbers of macrofauna individuals, a relatively great variation between replicates resulted in a lack of mathematical categorization
Microbial biomass carbon is one of the most responsive properties to the organic cultivation and often there is a close similarity between MBC values in OS and in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil (Partelli et al 2012)
Summary
In Brazil, most of the Coffea sp. is cultivated on conventional systems. in recent years, the organic system has emerged and is creating a new market niche for organic products (Partelli et al 2012). Conventional agriculture requires high inputs of fossil energy and large amounts of fertilizers and chemical pesticides (Gündoğmuş 2006). This inputs often have a negative effect on soil quality, with a higher tendency to soil compaction, loss of mineral nutrients, and reduction of soil biota (Vasconcellos et al 2013), which affect soil quality and ecological functions (Albrecht et al 2010) and causes degradation of soil and environment. As reported by Bartz et al (2009), in Brazil, few studies have been carried out to assess and compare the impact of organic and conventional systems on soil fauna populations under coffee plantations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
