The use of plant residues as mulch is widely used as a method to improve soil quality and maintain crop productivity. The effects of this agricultural practice can be assessed by the state of the soil biota, which largely determines soil fertility. The effect of adding straw-based mulch on the structure of the collembolan community was studied for the first time.
The staff of the Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), PhD in Biology Korotkevich A.Yu., PhD in Biology Goncharov A.A., and Professor of the Department of Zoology and Ecology of the Institute of Biology and Chemistry of Moscow State Pedagogical University, Doctor of Biological Sciences Kuznetsova N.A. conducted four field experiments from 2019 to 2022 on winter wheat fields in two regions of Russia located in different climatic zones - temperate and temperate continental. In each experiment, the effect of adding organic mulch with a known carbon and nitrogen ratio on the structure of the collembolan community was studied. In two climatic zones, the application of mulch stabilized the diversity of the springtail community in the same way, but the ratio of life forms changed differently. The effect of adding mulch on the springtail community was recorded on days 42–54 of the experiment, which is important for planning similar studies. This effect was more pronounced in dry years. The variability of the species diversity of the springtail community decreased threefold when adding mulch with a high nitrogen content (Fig. 1). This indicates that adding mulch leads to stabilization of the diversity of the springtail community during the season. Stabilization of the springtail community indirectly indicates a positive effect of the studied mulching type on the functions of the soil of the agrocenosis.
The work was published in the journal Applied Soil Ecology: Anastasia Yu. Korotkevich, Natalia A. Kuznetsova, Anton A. Goncharov, Effect of detrital subsidy on the Collembola community structure in winter wheat agroecosystems, Applied Soil Ecology Volume 203, November 2024, 105676.