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10 May 2017 Soil and Foliar Arthropod Abundance and Diversity in Five Cropping Systems in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina
Paul R. Adams, David B. Orr, Consuelo Arellano, Yasmin J. Cardoza
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Abstract

Soil and foliar arthropod populations in agricultural settings respond to environmental disturbance and degradation, impacting functional biodiversity in agroecosystems. The objective of this study was to evaluate system level management effects on soil and foliar arthropod abundance and diversity in corn and soybean. Our field experiment was a completely randomized block design with three replicates for five farming systems which included: Conventional clean till, conventional long rotation, conventional no-till, organic clean till, and organic reduced till. Soil arthropod sampling was accomplished by pitfall trapping. Foliar arthropod sampling was accomplished by scouting corn and sweep netting soybean. Overall soil arthropod abundance was significantly impacted by cropping in corn and for foliar arthropods in soybeans. Conventional long rotation and organic clean till systems were highest in overall soil arthropod abundance for corn while organic reduced till systems exceeded all other systems for overall foliar arthropod abundance in soybeans. Foliar arthropod abundance over sampling weeks was significantly impacted by cropping system and is suspected to be the result of in-field weed and cover crop cultivation practices. This suggests that the sum of management practices within production systems impact soil and foliar arthropod abundance and diversity and that the effects of these systems are dynamic over the cropping season. Changes in diversity may be explained by weed management practices as sources of disturbance and reduced arthropod refuges via weed reduction. Furthermore, our results suggest agricultural systems lower in management intensity, whether due to organic practices or reduced levels of disturbance, foster greater arthropod diversity.

©The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Paul R. Adams, David B. Orr, Consuelo Arellano, and Yasmin J. Cardoza "Soil and Foliar Arthropod Abundance and Diversity in Five Cropping Systems in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina," Environmental Entomology 46(4), 771-783, (10 May 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvx081
Received: 11 November 2016; Accepted: 4 April 2017; Published: 10 May 2017
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KEYWORDS
arthropod abundance and diversity
clean tillage
conventional farming
organic farming
reduced tillage
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