@article {1188, title = {Soil Health and Arthropods: From Complex System to Worthwhile Investigation}, journal = {Insects}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {16/01/2020}, pages = {1-21}, abstract = {

The dramatic increase in soil degradation in the last few decades has led to the need to identify methods to define not only soil quality but also, in a holistic approach, soil health. In the past twenty years, indices based on living communities have been proposed alongside the already proven physical-chemical methods. Among them, some soil invertebrates have been included in monitoring programs as bioindicators of soil quality. Being an important portion of soil fauna, soil arthropods are involved in many soil processes such as organic matter decomposition and translocation, nutrient cycling, microflora activity regulation and bioturbation. Many studies have reported the use of soil arthropods to define soil quality; among taxa, some have been explored more in depth, typically Acari and Collembola, while generally less abundant groups, such as Palpigradi or Embioptera, have not been investigated much. This paper aims to evaluate and compare the use of different soil microarthropod taxa in soil degradation/quality studies to highlight which groups are the most reported for soil monitoring and which are the most sensitive to soil degradation. We have decided not to include the two most present and abundant taxa, Acari and Collembola, in this paper in consideration of the vast amount of existing literature and focus the discussion on the other microarthropod groups. We reported some studies for each taxon highlighting the use of the group as soil quality indicator. A brief section reporting some indices based on soil microarthropods is proposed at the end of this specific discussion. This paper can be considered as a reference point in the use of soil arthropods to estimate soil quality and health.

}, keywords = {bioindicators, macroarthropods, mesofauna, microarthropods, soil biodiversity, soil degradation, soil quality}, issn = {2075-4450}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11010054}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/1/54}, author = {Menta, Cristina and Remelli, Sara} } @article {1157, title = {Management Intensification of Hay Meadows and Fruit Orchards Alters Soil Macro- Invertebrate Communities Differently}, journal = {Agronomy}, volume = {10}, year = {2020}, month = {28/05/2020}, pages = {1-9}, abstract = {

Land-use changes and especially management intensification currently pose a major threat to biodiversity both on and beneath the soil surface. With a comparative approach, we investigated how management intensity in orchards and meadows influences soil macro-invertebrate communities in a North-Italian Alpine region. We compared soil fauna assemblies from traditional low-input sites with respective intensively managed ones. As expected, the taxonomical richness and diversity were lower in both intensive management types. Extensive management of both types revealed similar communities, while intensification led to substantial differences between management types. From these results, we conclude that intensification of agricultural practices severely alters the soil fauna community and biodiversity in general, however, the direction of these changes is governed by the management type. In our view, extensive management, traditional for mountain areas, favors soil fauna communities that have adapted over a long time and can thus be viewed as a sustainable reference condition for new production systems that consider the protection of soil diversity in order to conserve essential ecosystem functions.

Recommended citation: Guariento E, Colla F, Steinwandter M, Plunger J, Tappeiner U, Seeber J. (2020): Management Intensification of Hay Meadows and Fruit Orchards Alters Soil Macro- Invertebrate Communities Differently. Agronomy, 10 (6), Art. 767: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10060767

}, keywords = {management intensity, mountain agriculture, soil biodiversity, South Tyrol, sustainable agriculture, traditional management}, issn = {2073-4395}, doi = {10.3390/agronomy10060767}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/6/767}, author = {Guariento, Elia and Colla, Filippo and Steinwandter, Michael and Plunger, Julia and Tappeiner, Ulrike and Seeber, Julia} }