Promotion of soil fauna and its services through adapted management strategies in wheat and potato cultivation.

As part of the Horizon 2020 EU project SoildiverAgro, innovative management strategies are being developed to promote soil biodiversity in European agricultural landscapes, increase ecosystem services and thus counteract the current trend of biodiversity loss. These adapted management measures are intended to improve the long-term yield capacity, stability and resilience of agroecosystems, reduce the need for external inputs and contribute to sustainable agricultural production on healthy soils. In order to investigate and assess the potential of different management practices to achieve these objectives, 15 case studies were conducted in six pedoclimatic regions of the EU over the period 2021 to 2023. In the continental region, two case studies were carried out in conventional wheat cultivation and one in organic potato production. In these three studies, the effects of extensification (reduction in the use of plant protection products) and diversification (cultivation of undersown crops) were studied. In addition to soil and plant parameters, the effects on the abundance and diversity of lumbricids and microarthropods (collembolans and mites) as well as their bioregulatory potential with regard to the suppression of phytopathogenic fungi (Fusarium and Alternaria) and the degradation of their mycotoxins (e.g. deoxynivalenol and zearalenone) were analysed. This ecosystem service is essential for maintaining plant and soil health and can help to reduce the use of fungicides in the long term. The results of the case studies show that in particular diversification through undersown crops promotes abundance and diversity of soil animals. Under organic potato cultivation with ploughing positive effects on microarthropods and soil parameters occurs in the short term i.e. in the first year of the study. Under conventional ploughless wheat cultivation the system responds with delay. In this case, a promotion of abundance, diversity and performance of the soil fauna (lumbricids, collembolans, mites) through diversification is found in the following vegetation period. Exemplary results from the case studies in the continental region will be presented and discussed in the context of the overall concept.