Vol.4 No.4 – 16 : Morphospecies diversity of soil invertebrates in Cultivated and Uncultivated fields

By: Abrar Maqtan¹, Hishamuddin Omar¹, Muskhazli Mustafa¹, Nur Ain Izzati M Zainudin^1, Daljit Singh Karam²

¹Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

²Department of Land Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

The soil environment is teeming with living organisms full of biological life and is one of the most abundant and diverse ecosystems on earth. However, due to unsustainable agriculture practices, the fertile topsoil is often lost; the soil becomes useless for agriculture. Therefore, we cannot lose sight on the fundamental role of the soil biological entities in maintaining the sustainability of the soil, and the role of organism’s biodiversity in the soil to counter against various stress. Therefore, the main objective of this work is detecting diversity and density of soil invertebrates between cultivated field (Ladang 2) and uncultivated field (CEFS), Results showed that the highest abundance to invertebrates was recorded at CEFS 834 with 3.7 m2 density and the lowest was in Ladang 2: 225 with 1.2 m2 density, belonging to 35 different morphospecies from 4 Phylum, 4 subphyla, 6 class, 2 subclass and 19 orders.  A total of 15 morphospecies were collected in the cultivated field Ladang 2, while 25 morphospecies were collected in the uncultivated filed CEFS. Out of 25 morphospecies found in this area, 10 were exclusive to this environment. Annelida, Amphipoda, Isopoda, Collembola and Hymenoptera were the dominant taxa in CEFS, comprising: 8.15%, 10.55%, 17.98%, 14.14% and 26.97% respectively. But Acarina, Coleoptera and Insect larva 39.68%, 5.95% and 3.97% respectively were the dominated taxa in Ladang 2. The diversity was highest in the CEFS (H = 2.29) and lowest in the Ladang2 field (H = 1.74). Unfortunately, many aspects of the soil invertebrates have not been documented in Malaysia. For example, why they become dominant in certain location and what is the impact on that particular ecosystem.  This study showed that it is essential to maintain natural habitat because agricultural practices have major influence on soil invertebrate diversity and hopefully through this study able to suggest sound agriculture management to safeguard the soil ecosystems. Due to the limited information pertaining to soil invertebrates in Malaysia and limited scope of this study, it is premature to make any conclusion and therefore warrant further studies.

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