‘SOIL ARTHROPOD DIVERSITY, RICHNESS AND ABUNDANCE IN AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS’

Abstract

Soil arthropods play a crucial role in an ecosystem and act as predators, pollinators, parasitoids, herbivores and decomposers. Arthropods are used as biological indicators for agroecosytem integrity. Soil is a midway to interact with the large number of organisms in the environment. The present study was carried out to achieve the biodiversity of soil arthropods in Agricultural ecosystem. Data analysis based on species richness and abundance reported that the month of October and November recorded the highest index value in Agricultural ecosystem. Under Macro arthropods class Arachnida, Insecta and Crustaceans were found. Similarly, under Micro arthropods class Entognatha and Chilopoda were recorded. Family Paronellinae from Entognatha, scarabaeidae from insecta and lycosidae from arachnida recorded the highest number of species during the period