Oribatid faunal abundance: An indicator for evaluation of environmental harshness in agro-ecosystem

Abstract

Present study is an ecological interpretation between three contrasting agro-ecosystem, first one is a waste land (WL), without agricultural practice, second one is a fodder field (FF) and third one is a sugarcane field (SF). Last two systems are differently treated by chemical manure and insecticides. Therefore, the microclimate of three systems is different in their soil ecological parameters. Species composition of soil Oribatid fauna in the three sites are quite different. The study reveals that WL represents 24 species, FF represents 20 species and SF represents 16 species of Oribatid mite. Sorenson Quotient of similarity shows that the similarity between WL-FF &WL-SF is slightly similar but between FF-SF shows moderately dissimilar. Present result signifies that the environmental manipulation due to agriculture practice is the cause of variation in faunal composition and variation in similarity index of Oribatid mite between three agro-ecosystems. In turn it may be concluded that Oribatid faunal abundance is the indicator of environmental harshness that can be arranged in SF< FF< WL.