Population and Diversity of Soil and Leaf Litter Mesofauna in Arable Soils at The Agriculture Experimental Field of University of Lampung

The research was conducted to study the population and diversity of soil and leaf litter mesofauna in arable soils under different types of vegetation and slope at the Agriculture Experimental Field (AEF) of University of Lampung. The study was designed to use a survey method. The soil and leaf litter samples were taken from different vegetation types and slope classes. Observational variables included population and diversity index of soil mesofauna (H’), soil temperature, soil moisture content, soil pH, soil organic-C, soil total-N, and soil C/N ratio were measured. The data of population distribution were presented in a boxplot diagram and the correlation between soil properties and mesofauna population or mesofauna diversity index were presented. The results showed that the most abundant soil mesofauna was observed in the plot with sugarcane vegetation, either sampled at the end of dry season (November 2015) or at the beginning of rainy season (April 2016). However, the highest number of leaf litter mesofauna was found in the plot with cassava vegetation. The result suggested that the cassava leaf litter most likely become the preferred substrate for mesofauna. In all treatments, the values of mesofauna diversity index (H‘) are categorized as low according to the Shannon-Weaver index. Two predominant orders frequently found in almost all vegetation types were Acarina and Collembola. The results of correlation analysis indicated that only soil pH sampled in November 2015 is positively correlated to the mesofauna population (range of pH 5.0 to 6.6). Soil moisture content sampled in November 2015 and soil C/N ratio sampled on April 2016 are positively correlated to the diversity index of soil mesofauna, respectively. Soil total-N sampled in November 2015 is negatively correlated to the soil mesofauna diversity index. The increase of leaf litter biomass appears to promote the increase of the leaf litter mesofauna population, but not the diversity index.