Soil biological quality under chemical agents of plant protection usage. Assessment of pedofauna biodiversity

Abstract

This study, carried out under natural conditions, aims to understand the effect of the long-term use of phytosanitary treatments on the pedofauna biodiversity. Our results show that the influence of pesticides was clearer on the total abundance of the pedofauna in autumn than in spring. In total, we caught 620 individuals in the treated site and 868 individuals in the untreated site for the two work months October 2014 and April 2015. And the abundance of pedofauna was higher in the fall and lower in the spring for the untreated site. A total of 11 orders were identified for the site treated against 13 orders for the untreated site for the month of October. The impact of pesticides was more evident in the mesofauna where there was a total absence of springtails in the site treated, compared with only 5 individuals for the untreated site.