JOURNAL of Soil Biology and Ecology

Abundance of soil biota in pigeon pea cropping system

Authors: P.N. GURU AND R.K. PATIL

Abstract:

The soil biota response to mulching and crop vegetation was studied in pigeon pea during Kharif season in black soil. The mulched plots were abundant in soil fauna, i.e., mesofauna (3.47/ 100g of soil), macro arthropods (2.25 per trap) and earthworms (2.61 per 0.25m2) compared to plots with no mulch, i.e., 1.54, 1.40 and 0.95, respectively. The Shannon’s diversity index was also higher in plots with mulched (0.581) than in plots without mulch (0.480). A nearly two to three times increase in population was observed in mulch plots, indicating that mulching has a significant influence and is favourable for soil biota abundance and diversity.

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