Diversified cropping systems for promoting the beneficial insects - ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

In agro-ecosystems ground beetles - carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are important as generalist predators of invertebrate pests and weed seeds and as prey for larger animals. This way they contribute to biodiversity and influence the most important ecological processes. Impacts of crop management practices on the carabids are not well described. Carabids were studied in winter wheat which is one crop in the rotation experiment (barley undersown with clover-clover-winter wheat-pea-potato). Carabids were collected with pitfall trap during one week at the end of June 2022. In laboratory, their species was identified. Trapping of carabids during the spiking phase of winter wheat has shown significant differences in carabids activitydensity and diversity depending on five different cropping systems. In two conventional systems where pesticides were used the number of carabids was two times smaller in comparison with three organic systems. Activity-density and diversity of carabids was significantly higher in all organic systems and especially in Org II system where winter cover crops and composted manure where used for rotation diversification. The Shannon–Wiener index values, which takes into account the number of species and their relative abundance were 1.24–1.53 in conventional systems, but higher in diversified organic systems (1.60–1.78). Only in organic systems Org I and Org II there were very rare species present, like Acupalpus meridianus (Linnaeus) and Microlestes minutulus (Goeze). In diversified organic systems the higher activity-density and abundance of carabids could be explained by the diverse plant community as possible source for better food and microclimatic conditions.