Carabid Beetles and Agricultural Practices: Influence of Soil Ploughing

Abstract

Deep ploughing drastically changes soil structure and is probably one of the most disturbing agricultural practices for soil fauna. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of ploughing reduction on the structure and composition of adult carabid beetle communities. Three soil treatments, normal ploughing, light ploughing and no ploughing, were applied in four kinds of crop. Carabid beetles were sampled weekly using pitfall traps. Soil ploughing increases the abundance of the dominant species, Pterostichus melanarius. Species richness significantly depended on the crop type. However, it appears that the less abundant species in deep ploughing became more numerous when reduced tillage or no cultivation was applied.