Seasonal diversity of soil microarthropods in two different vegetable plots of Aligarh-India

Soil microarthropods are intimately linked with health and fertility of soil as well as plant productivity. In India, despite their rich faunal diversity, information on soil microarthropods diversity and interactions with variety of edaphic factors is extremely limited. The present study has been carried out to observe seasonal diversity of soil microarthropods in two different vegetable plots at Aligarh. The two vegetable plots chosen in this study where predominantly Tomato (Lycopersicom esculentum) and Brinjal (Solanum melongena, family-Solaneceae) have been grown and sapling has been sown in the month of April when plants attained a height of approximately 6''. The samples were collected randomly from a depth of 5cm. @ of four samples per month for a period of one year. All microarthropods extracted with the help of Tullgren funnel apparatus. Among soil microarthropods collected, Collembolans have highest average monthly density (15.20 inds./sample) in brinjal plot and greatest abundance (18.7inds./sample) in tomato plot. A highly significant negative correlation was recorded between Collembolans population with reference to soil temperature (r = -0.867, P0.05). Interestingly, at neutral pH level, the highest population of Collembolans as well as Acari(mites) were recorded. During spring and winter months, there was a peak population buildup of Collembola and Acarina, whereas a sharp decline was recorded in summer months. So, this study clearly establishes that habitat difference as well as edaphic factors plays an important role along with seasonal parameters on their diversity.