Epigean fauna in no-till systems, pasture, eucalyptus and native savanna in Uruçuí, Piauí, Brazil

Abstract

The soil fauna is one of the bioindicators of soil quality that has greater sensitivity, being easily altered by changes that occur in natural and agricultural ecosystems. The objective of this work was to evaluate the density and diversity of the soil macrofauna and the functional groups of the epigeal macrofauna that are most representative in no-tillage, pasture, eucalyptus cultivation and native savanna systems in Uruçuí, Piauí, Brazil. Five soil management systems were used: pasture (PAS); no tillage soybean in corn straw (NT1); no tillage of corn under straw of mombaça grass (NT2); eucalyptus (EUC), in addition to a savanna area used as a reference (FA). Fauna collection was performed using pitfall traps containing 4% formaldehyde. The fauna was evaluated by the number of individuals per trap per day, wealth, average wealth, Shannon’s diversity index and Pielou’s uniformity index. The data was subjected to analysis of variance, and when significant, was subjected to the Friedman test. The pasture system had the least impact on edaphic fauna when compared to native savanna forest and when compared to management systems and the collembola, orthoptera and diptera groups were the most abundant in the studied management systems.