Abstract
The objective of the study was to compare the richness and diversity of ant assemblages in an agroecological system under peach orchard, conventional system under peach orchard cultivation and native vegetation in rural properties located in a Pampa Biome. The study was conducted in four samplings in 2017: 1st and 09th March (summer); 24th and 31st July (winter); and four samplings in 2018: 23rd and 30th January (summer); 31st July and 07th August (winter). Pitfall traps were used. The assemblages were characterized and compared using richness, number of occurrences of ants, Shannon diversity (H'), equitability, rarefaction analysis and Chao 1. The association of the species with the samples was evaluated by a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The agroecological system had the highest number of occurrences, while the conventional orchard the lowest number. Richness and abundance were greatest during the summer. The conventional peach orchard obtained the lowest H' for both seasons when compared to the agroecological orchard and native vegetation. The PCA explained 77.40% of the occurrence of ants in the environments and in the seasons. The results found demonstrated that conservationist systems tend to harbor greater wealth and diversity of ant assemblages, as well as occurring in native áreas.
Highlights
The management of ecologically based systems considering environmental preservation emerged in the beginning of the 21st century as the emergence of a paradigm shift process, in order to prevent the degradation of natural resources (Silva et al 2015)
The study was carried out in two familiar agricultural agroecosystems and a native vegetation area located in the Pampa Biome
The genus Solenopsis was not collected in native vegetation, in the conventional orchard it represented 18.6% of the total records for the agroecosystem, where as in the agroecological orchard the genus represented 1.2% of the records
Summary
The management of ecologically based systems considering environmental preservation emerged in the beginning of the 21st century as the emergence of a paradigm shift process, in order to prevent the degradation of natural resources (Silva et al 2015). Of particular concern has been the degradation that conventional management has been causing in the soil This is the basic ecological component of the functioning of ecological processes in ecosystems and sustainable agricultural yield (Gliessman 2009). Common practices of this type of management, such as plowing, harrowing and the use of pesticides, can degrade the soil, reducing its quality and causing erosion, superficial crusting and reduction of soil organic matter (Bartz et al 2013). The soil, in addition to being a substrate for plant growth and food production, should be considered a living “being”, as it contains thousands of animals and microorganisms (Brown et al 2015), being a
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