Influence of land use on the diversity and composition of edaphic arthropods in the Granja Tunguavita

Forero, Nicolas; Serrano, Pablo A; Forero, Fabio E

Influence of land use on the diversity and composition of edaphic arthropods in the Granja Tunguavita

2021

Forero, Nicolas | Serrano, Pablo A | Forero, Fabio E

The modification of the landscape, the intense exploitation of natural resources through intensive agriculture and the advance of the agricultural frontier result in the homogenization of the landscape and alteration of soil physicochemical conditions. These soil alterations cause changes in the composition and diversity of edaphic arthropod communities that can be used as biomonitoring and diagnostic tools in local areas. The objective of the study was to evaluate the diversity of edaphic arthropods and their association to different physicochemical parameters (i.e., pH, real density, bulk density, %OC, %OM and gravimetric and volumetric humidity) in three soil uses (permanent crop, rotational crop and pasture) in the experimental farm Tunguavita Paipa - Boyacá. The plot sampling technique was used to obtain data on biological and physicochemical variables. Samples were taken in three soil uses, permanent crop, rotational crop and cattle ranch. The edaphic arthropods and physicochemical variables were determined in the soil laboratory of the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia. The highest diversity of edaphic arthropods (309 individuals) was recorded in the permanent crop plot, followed by the rotational crop plot, both with high average values of %OM (1.82 - 1.90) and %OC (1.05 - 1.10). The Oligochaeta, Diplopoda and Araneae group were the major contributors to the biological differentiation between land uses. The changes in the abundance of edaphic arthropods were related to % gravimetric humidity, %volumetric humidity, pH, %OM and %OC, while the values of real density and bulk density did not correlate to a great extent with the changes in abundance. These variations allow the differentiation of land uses in an intervention gradient.

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