Abstract
Agricultural practices play a major role in influencing soil fauna abundance and diversity. Interest in these practices has increased owing to the growing need for sustainable agricultural systems in this era of increasing agricultural intensification. In this study, two paddy rice farming pathways (smallholder and large-scale commercial) and an adjacent natural wetland in Mpologoma catchment were studied to determine the response of soil macroinvertebrates to paddy rice farming pathways. Eighteen macroinvertebrate taxa were observed, some of which were not the usual soil taxa (Hirudinea, Decapoda, Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Odonata). SIMPER analysis showed that Oligochaeta, Gastropoda, and Coleoptera were the major taxa responsible for dissimilarity among sites. Macroinvertebrate richness and diversity also varied among sites. Some taxa showed habitat exclusivity: Diptera, Odonata, and Trichoptera were exclusive to both rice paddies; Decapoda, Chilopoda, Diplopoda, and Blattodea to natural wetland; Diplura and Ephemeroptera were exclusive to large-scale commercial paddies. NMDS ordination showed that macroinvertebrate distribution among sites was strongly correlated with soil pH and calcium and moderately correlated with phosphorus. These results indicate that wetland conversion to rice paddies could affect macroinvertebrate richness and diversity and underscore the importance of soil environment in influencing the macroinvertebrate community in rice paddies.
Highlights
Establishing sustainable food production systems is a major global concern, and the need to balance the social, economic, and environmental aspects of crop production has attracted vast research in the area of agricultural sustainability [1,2]
Oligochaetes occurred in 100%, 97%, and 72% of the soil samples collected from the natural wetland, smallholder paddies, and large-scale commercial paddies, respectively; Coleoptera were mainly found in soil samples from the large-scale commercial paddies (66.7%), followed by natural wetland (58.3%), and least in the smallholder paddies (33.3%)
The majority of the Gastropods and Hirudinea were encountered in the large-scale commercial paddies (72.2% and 50.0%, respectively), followed by smallholder paddies (33.3% and 38.9%, respectively), and natural wetland (25.0% and 8.3%, respectively)
Summary
Establishing sustainable food production systems is a major global concern, and the need to balance the social, economic, and environmental aspects of crop production has attracted vast research in the area of agricultural sustainability [1,2]. By decomposing organic matter, modifying soil structure, and mediating nutrient cycling, among other functions, soil invertebrates enhance soil quality for sustainable crop production [13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. Conservation of soil invertebrates continues to be a challenge in agricultural landscapes. This is largely attributed to their dwelling in the surface litter or in nests and burrows, such that they create in the top 20 cm of the soil profile, where they are prone to physical, chemical, or biological disturbance [13,20,21]. The sensitivity to disturbance is of utmost ecological significance in the function of soil invertebrates as bioindicators [22,23,24,25], and changes in their community characteristics can provide valuable feedback on prevailing soil management practices
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