103(2)_str21

 

ISSN 1392-3196 / e-ISSN 2335-8947
Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, vol. 103, No. 2 (2016), p. 159–166
DOI 10.13080/z-a.2016.103.021

The assemblages of soil-dwelling springtails (Collembola) in winter rye under long-term monoculture and crop rotation

Iwona GRUSS, Jacek TWARDOWSKI

Abstract

Focusing on the response of soil mesofauna to winter rye cultivation in monoculture for 90 years, the study investigated the abundance and diversity of soil-dwelling springtails, in relation to a five-field crop rotation. A long-term monoculture experiment was established in Poland in 1923 and has been continued uninterruptedly to the present time. Soil samples were taken over a period of three years (2011–2013) to determine springtail (Collembola) abundance, species composition and life-forms spectra. We hypothesize that the crop rotation indirectly, due to the residues from the previous crops and modified soil conditions, caused the increase of the abundance and species diversity of springtails in comparison to monoculture. Generally, springtails were more abundant in the soil of rye field cultivated within a 5-field crop rotation. For the majority of sampling dates the abundance of springtails was higher in that habitat in comparison to the monoculture. Also, the calculated ecological indices showed greater diversity in the crop rotation. This treatment was dominated by the three species – Hypogastrura manubrialis, Mesaphorura macrochaeta and Ceratophysella denticulata, but in the monoculture only M. macrochaeta was distinctly numerous. Hemiedaphic springtails dominated in the crop rotation, whereas in the monoculture the most abundant were euedaphic representatives. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the studied organisms were influenced by two factors – treatment and the sampling date. We suspect that the unbeneficial soil conditions in certain sampling dates had greater impact on Collembola community than the crop rotation system.

Key words: cereals, Collembola, crop rotation, soil biodiversity, soil mesofauna.

Full text: 103_2_str21.pdf