Soil macrofauna and its fertility under sugarcane monoculture compared to natural ecosystems

Abstract

Natural ecosystems have a protective effect on the soil, hence the comparison of their fertility with that associated with sugarcane cultivation would contribute to a better assessment of the consequences of this crop on soil quality. To this end, the macrofauna in a Vertic Brown soil under monoculture for 35 years was evaluated as a biological indicator, in relation to natural ecosystems, under different crop regimes: forest and pasture. To this end, the ecosystems were sampled at different depths and the results were statistically analyzed using the SPSS package, version 18.0. The macrofauna data were subjected to simple classification variance analysis, with subsequent comparison of means (Tukey's HSD test). For the study of biodiversity, an area of annual crops was included in addition to those previously mentioned. The diversity of macrofauna present in the ecosystems was greater in the forest, similar in grass and sugar cane and lower in row crops. The results show that the biological indicators evaluated, related to macrofauna, show that sugar cane monoculture has a moderate influence on the decrease in soil biological fertility.

Keywords: Biodiversity, Crops, Biological Indicator.