Soil fauna diversity is enhanced by vegetation complexity and no-till planting in regenerative agroecosystems

Abstract

Agricultural ecosystems are driven by the need to increase yield, due to increased food demands. Conventional, intensive practices are not sustainable as they disrupt the biodiversity in the soil which performs a range of ecosystem functions that sustain soil productivity and resilience. Conservation agriculture and crop-livestock integrated agriculture have been promoted as some of the most sustainable and biodiversity-conserving forms of agriculture. This study assesses how soil macro-and mesofauna in staple crops respond to different agricultural land uses, including conventional, integrated and conservation agriculture, and lastly, natural grassland ecosystems which were used as reference sites. We compared species richness, composition, and functional structure of soil fauna among the land uses and assessed environmental drivers of these patterns. Soil macro-and mesofauna species richness was generally lower in conventional management compared to other management practices, for overall arthropods and for the separate taxonomic groups, beetles, earthworms, spiders, and springtails. Different functional guilds varied in their responses to the farming systems. Vegetation cover and plant litter cover are the variables which benefited most fauna diversity. The practices of no-till plantings coupled with diversified crop rotations and cover crop mixtures under conservation and integrated agricultural management enhances the diversity of earthworms, collembola, beetles, and spiders. Low-disturbance soil management, crop diversification and within-crop habitat complexity preserves arthropod soil fauna diversity in staple crops.