JOURNAL of Soil Biology and Ecology

Interactions among farming practices, introduced soil mesofauna, and abiotic factors affect soil cryptostigmatid mites in the sunflower ecosystem.

Author:

SHIVAPPA AGADI 

Abstract :

Soil cryptostimata are essential components of the soil biota, contributing to various functions and processes.  The field experiment was conducted to know the impact of fertilizer application based on soil testing and crop response and introduced soil mesofauna of undisturbed ecosystem on the soil cryptostimatids during the Kharif season under the sunflower cropping system. Soil biota consortia were introduced to four treatments, viz. (Package of practice (POP) 62.50:90:62.50 kg NPK/ha+ 7.5 t of FYM /ha, FYM alone (15 t/ha), Soil test crop response integrated practices (STCR) - 24.22:56.64 kg NK/ha +2.5 t of FYM/ha and STCR inorganic alone (110.46:133.04) kg NK/ha) and remaining four treatments were without introduction of soil biota consortia. Cryptostigmatid abundance was significantly higher in the 15 tonnes of FYM ha-1 applied treatment and the treatment with STCR inorganic with introduced consortia of soil fauna harvested the minor cryptostigmatid abundance. Cryptostigmatid abundance exhibited a significant positive relationship with minimum relative humidity. However, multiple linear regression analysis results indicated that the impact of minimum relative humidity on the activity of cryptostigmatids was up to 24.9 per cent.

Key words: Cryptostigmata, introduced native soil biota, STCR, Farm yard manure, Relative humidity 

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