Impacts of different agricultural practices on the biodiversity of microarthropod communities in arable crop systems

Two crop production systems, which differ on tillage and pesticides, were compared for biodiversity of soil microarthropod communities. A biodiversity index, which integrates different structure and density parameters (abundance, taxonomic richness, taxonomic diversity, coenotic diversity) was used. Results showed a greater biodiversity in minimum tillage systems compared to deep tillage systems. Pesticides seemed to be only a second order factor of variance on microarthropod biodiversity.