Investigating the Assemblages of Two Groups of Collembola (Strong Furca and Weak Furca) under Different Agricultural Management Systems, Northeastern China

Abstract

Agriculture itself has been considered one of the leading reasons for biodiversity loss because of the huge quantity of land dedicated to just this activity, and agricultural intensification has impacted soil organisms at several taxonomic levels. Soil biota is a vital component of the agricultural system, providing essential ecosystem services while also having synergistic impacts on crop yield. Preservation of their diversity becomes a major element of an agricultural sustainability strategy. Many studies focused on agricultural activities’ effects on soil organisms, but few of them have focused on their effects on the co-occurrence patterns of their communities. Collembola communities are frequently employed as a substitute for soil organisms; thus, as a surface-dwelling arthropods representative, we investigated assemblages of soil Collembola in reaction to the arrangement of 6 treatments varying in crop rotation (MC: monoculture (corn) vs. CS: corn–soybean rotation) and tillage types (MP: mould ploughing; RT: ridge tillage; and NT: no-tillage). We hypothesized that Collembola communities with strong furca would respond well to the agricultural practices than those with weak furca, and there would be strong co-occurrence between species of Collembola communities belonging to the treatments with less intensity of soil disturbance and more variation in crop rotation. Our study found no clear evidence of a beneficial effect of crop rotation on Collembola communities. Although Collembola with strong furca shows higher abundances in plots with mold plowing, weak furca abundances were not showing any difference (differences in abilities to move fast from harsh habitats could be the reason for different responses of these two groups). Network analysis revealed that Collembola assemblages seem to occur more responsive to tillage intensity than crop rotation. Network graphs of treatments with ridge tillage are significantly more clustered than all others. For the first time, we can show that assemblages of springtails in agriculture were distinguished by a pattern of co-occurrence alongside agricultural practices (crop rotation, soil tillage), showing variations in the disturbance of soil and soil nutrients. Our results, contrary to our expectations, demonstrated that the effects of agricultural activities on Collembola abundance and diversity could be weak after long-term application of the same treatment, but still, they will clearly affect the bonds between Collembola species by affecting their co-occurrence pattern in Collembola communities.