SOIL MACROFAUNAL ASSEMBLAGE IN SELECTED LAND USE SYSTEMS IN KERALA: SPATIAL PATTERN AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS I'hl) thl''';!'> 'iIIHilllt L' tl h\' MUJEEB RAHMAN P ~11111 K FR. Department of Forest Entomology. Fore st Health Division KERALA FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Peechi·680 653.Thrissur. Kerala. lnd ia COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CUSAT) COCHIN. KERALA August 2010 CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the thesis entitled "SOIL MACROFAUNAL ASSEMBLAGE IN SELECTED LANDUSE SYSTEMS IN KERALA: SPATIAL PATTERN AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS" submitted to the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin, Kerala, India for the award of Doctor of Philosophy is a record of original bona fide research work carried out by Mr. Mujeeb Rahman, P under my supervision and guidance. This thesis has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any diploma, degree, associateship or any other similar title to any candidate of this or any other University. Place: Peechi Dr. RV Varma Date: 2-&I4&\:l.Olo Supervising Guide DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled "SOIL MACROFAUNAL ASSEMBLAGE IN SELECTED LANDUSE SYSTEMS IN KERALA: SPATIAL PATTERN AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS" submitted to the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin, Kerala, India for the award of Doctor of Philosophy is a record of independent research work carried out by me under the guidance of Dr. R.V. Varma, Programme Coordinator, Forest Health Division, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Thrissur. This thesis has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any diploma, degree, associateship or similar title. Place: Peechi Date: 2' 1& 12.01~ Mujeeb Rahman P ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis arose as part of years of research carried out since I joined Kerala Forest Research Institute as a Junior Research Fellow under Dr. RV Varma, Programme Coordinator, Forest Health Division. Foremost, I would like to record my gratitude to Dr. RV Varma for persuading me to register for PhD and for his supervision. This thesis would not have been possible deprived of the help, support and patience of my supervising guide, who gave me ample freedom to work, spend lot of time to correct the thesis during his hectic schedule. I am indebted to him more than he knows. Many thanks to Dr. KV Sankaran, Director, KFRI and Dr. JK Sharma, Former Director for their advice, interest in my research and for providing facilities. I gratefully acknowledge Dr. UM Chandrashekara, Scientist in Charge, KFRI Subcentre, Nilambur, who was the PI of the research project, in which I was engaged and with whom I spend most of my research time. His crucial contributions and involvement has triggered and nourished thoughts and activities. I extend my sincere thanks to him. I would like to express my gratitude to members of Doctoral and Research Committees, especially, to Dr. VV SUdheendrakumar (HoD, Forest Entomology Department, KFRI) and Dr. Jose Kallarackal (Emeritus SCientist, KFRI) for their valuable contribution, advice and suggestions. I am grateful to Dr. EA Jayson, Chairman of PhD programme, for his timely help and constructive suggestions in the due course of work. Special thanks to Dr. Ammini Joseph and Or. Suguna Yesodharan ofSES, CUSAT for their help and support. I would like to thank Dr. KG Saxena (Professor, SES, JNU) and KS Rao (Professor, Delhi University) for their moral support. I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Sr. KA Karmaly (St Xavier's, Aluva), Or. JM Julkd (Emeritus Scientist, ZSI, Solan), Dr. R Paliwal (ZSI, Kolkata) and Dr. Radha D Kale (UAS, Bangalore) for identifying specimens and teaching me basic taxonomy and ecology. I was delighted to interact with Or. GW Sileshi (ICRAF, Malawi) and Dr. Jens Dauber (Institute of Biodiversity, vTl, Germany), and acknowledge their encouragement, help and interest in my work. I convey my special acknowledgement to Dr. George Mathew, Dr. TV Sajeev and Dr. M Sivaram of KFRI for their help and support during the study. I am obliged to staffs of KFRI library and LAN for their cooperation. I am indebted to my co-workers especially, Baiju, Santhosh and Shanavas for support in the field and lab. It is pleasure to thank them. I would like to thank residents of Karakkode area, for allowing me to conduct experiments and to collect samples from their plot, exchanging information and seamless help during field work. I am grateful to all my lab buddies and friends at KFRI, especially, Mary, Swaran, Siyad, Raju, Manju, Suganthan, Babu ...... (1 know, the list is incomplete). I am indebted to my parents for their vision to educate me. It is an honour to thanks my brothers and in laws and more than that their kids Anu, Sonu and Raniya for innocent love and affection. This work was completed utilizing fund of UNEP /GEF /TSBF-CIAT /JNU /KFRI coordinated programme on conservation and sustainable management of belowground biodiversity. I thank the authorities for financial support and excellent training. Last but not least, I thank God for His blessings. You have made my life more bountiful. May your name be exalted, honored, and glorified. CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Chapter I INTRODUCTION 14 Chapter 11 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 5-28 Chapter 111 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA 29-35 Chapter IV METHODS 36-42 Chapter V RESULTS 43-86 Chapter VI GENERAL DISCUSSION 87-93 Chapter VII CONCLUSIONS 94-95 SUMMARY 96-100 REFERENCES 101-121 APPENDIX A-I PLATES DETAILED CONTENT INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................01-04 Objectives 03 Scope of the thesis 03 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...........................................................................................05-28 2.1. Background 05 2.2. Importance of soil fauna as a component of ecosystem 06 2.2.1. Definition for soil fauna 07 2.2.2. Diversity of soil fauna 07 2.2.3. Classification of soil biota 08 2.2.4. Soil biota in ecosystem processes 09 2.3. Soil faunal studies-past attempts and present status 11 2.3.1. Soil faunal studies in India 12 2.4. Soil macrofauna as ecosystem engineers 13 2.4.1. Earthworm, Termite and Ant 14 2.S. Characterization of soil fauna 16 2.6. Spatial segregation of soil fauna 17 2.6.1. Stress and Disturbances 18 2.6.2. Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides 19 2.6.3. Effect of moisture and temperature 20 2.6.4. Succession and dispersal of soil fauna 20 2.7. Threats on soil faunal biodiversity 21 2.7.1. Landuse change and intensive land utilization 21 2.7.1.1. Impact of agriculture on soil biodiversity 23 2.7.2. Exotic plants and invasive species 24 2.7.3. Global change and soil fauna 24 2.8. Aboveground vs belowground biodiversity 2.5 2.8.1. Correlation between above and belowground diversity 2S 2.8.2. Aboveground-belowground feedback 26 2.9. Soil invertebrates as indicator species 27 2.10. Economic aspects of soil biodiversity 28 2.11. Conservation needs of soil biodiversity 28 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA ....................................................... 29-35 3.1. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) 29 3.1.1. Kerala part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve 29 31 3.3. General climatic pattern 32 3.4. Biological Resources 33 3.5. Landuse history 34 3.5.1. Changes in crop pattern 34 3.5.2. Changing pattern in the study area 35 METHODS ..................................................................................................................36-42 4.1. Site "p!ection 36 4.2. Faunal sampling 37 4.2.1. Soil monoliths 37 4.2.2. Pit fall trapping 39 4.2.3. Line transect for termite sampling 39 4.3. Study of environmental parameters 39 4.3.1. Climatic factors 39 4.3.2. Physico-chemical aspects of soil 39 4.3.3. Assessment of management characteristics 40 4.4. Data analyses 40 RESULTS .....................................................................................................................43-86 5.1. Diversity of ecosystems engineers 43 5.1.1. Ant diversity and community structure 43 5.1.1.1. Abundance of ants in different landuse systems 43 5.1.1.2. Habitat-wise distribution of ant species 45 5.1.2. Earthworm diversity and community structure 47 5.1.2.1. Habitat-wise distribution and functional categorization 47 5.1.2.2. Abundance of earthworms in different landuse systems 48 5.1.3. Termite diversity and community structure 48 5.1.3.1. Habitat-wise distribution of termites 49 5.1.3.2. Abundance of termites in different landuse systems 50 5.1.4. Discussion 50 5.2. Spatial distribution of soil fauna 55 5.2.1. Influence of habitat heterogeneity and landscape structure 55 5.2.1.1. Variation among ecosystems 56 5.2.1.1.1. Variation in the richness of supra-specific taxa 56 5.2.1.1.2. Variation in abundance of supra-specific taxa 56 5.2.1.2. Variation among landuse practices 57 5.2.1.2.1. Variation in richness and abundance 57 5.2.1.2.2. Variation in abundance 58 5.2.2. Classification and ordination of landuse practices 63 5.2.3. Discussion 68 5.3. Influence ofEnvironmental and Management factors 70 5.3.1. Soil and Climatic pattern 70 5.3.1.1. Edaphic factors of the study area 70 5.3.1.2. General climatic pattern 71 5.3.2. Management attributes of landuse systems 72 5.3.3. Interpreting the variation 73 5.3.4. Model Building 78 5.3.4.1. Testing the significance of model 80 5.3.5. Interpretation of Constraints 81 5.3.6. Variance partitioning 83 5.3.9. Discussion 84 GENERAL DiSCUSSiON ............................................................................................. 87-93 CO NClU SI ON S....................................................................... .................................... 94-95 SUMMARy ................................................................................................................96-100 REF EREN CES ........................................................................................................... 101-121 APPENDIX ... ...............................................................................................................A-I PLATES LIST OF TABLES # Description Page 3.1. Monthly mean values of relative humidity 33 4.1.