Der Einfluss von Bewirtschaftung und organischer Düngung auf Bodenarthropoden in ackerbaulich genutzten Böden

Compared to other components of agricultural biodiversity, such as avifauna or weed flora, biodiversity in agricultural soils has so far received little attention from species and nature conservation. While it is known that diverse crop rotations, minimised use of pesticides and reduced and variable tillage promote soil biodiversity, there are only few studies on the effect of different fertilisers on total soil arthropods. In two-year static field trials at an organically and a conventionally managed site in North Rhine-Westphalia, five different organic fertilisation treatments, a mineral nitrogen fertiliser treatment and two unfertilised control treatments were compared to each other in terms of their effects on soil biodiversity. Soil organisms were sampled with photoeclectors, pitfall traps, Berlese-Tullgren funnels and environmental DNA (e-DNA). First results show only weak differences between the effects of the tested fertilisation treatments on total arthropod abundance or on the abundances of selected taxonomic orders. However, a more precise taxonomic identification (morphologically at suborder or even species level, as well as by eDNA) already suggests that a high diversity of soil organisms cannot be achieved by a single fertiliser treatment, but rather by combinations of different fertilisers. In the future, it will be crucial to better understand the complex food webs in the soil in order to derive targeted measures to enhance soil biodiversity that include the selection of appropriate fertilisers.