engleski

Arthropod fauna in olive orchards of Zadar County

Arthropods have great significance in integrated and ecological protection of plants because the increase in their population can reduce the number of pests, thereby reducing the use of pesticides. It is necessary to maintain biodiversity within the cultivation area. Biodiversity is achieved by maintaining the ecological infrastructure that provides beneficial arthropods habitat, shelter and space for overwintering, also provides them a food source. It was found that the presence of certain weed species is in close relationship with the increasing presence of beneficial arthropods. The objective of research was to assess the abundance, richness and composition of arthropods in olive orchard under different land use. The experiment was done in two olive orchards in Ravni Kotari (Zadar County, Croatia). In one orchard soil was cultivated, in another it was partly covered with weeds. Arthropod fauna was collected in 2014 from the beginning of May till the end of September. For arthropod collection entomological net and yellow sticky traps were used. In each orchard three yellow sticky traps were placed. Samples were taken every fifteen days. Richness was measured using Shannon Diversity Index (H'). During this research a total of 263 arthropod individuals belonging to 10 orders were collected. Arthropod fauna was numerically dominated by: Hymenoptera (61.5%), Coleoptera (19.3%) and Neuroptera (4.5%). On yellow sticky traps beneficial arthropods as follows: parasitic wasps, lacewings, syrphid flies and ladybirds were found. Higher number of beneficial organisms was found in olive orchard partly covered with weeds (125), until in cultivated orchard 94 individuals were recorded. Richness of arthropods was highest (2.90) in olive orchard where weeds were partly present. Although significant differences between olive orchards were not found we could observe that orchard partly covered with weeds has attracted more beneficial arthropods then cultivated one.

ecological infrastructure; integrated and ecological plant protection; beneficial organisms; olive; Shannon Diversity Index

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