ABSTRACT
The soil contains by far the greatest diversity of organisms. The taxonomic and functional diversity of macrofauna in the soil is stunning. The study was aimed at evaluating the effect of continuous fertilizer application on the community structure of soil macrofauna in the palm plantation in NIFOR, near Benin City.
The study was carried out in four selected stations; Field 2, field 13, field 30 and field 31 which were designated as station 1, Station 2, Station 3 and Station 4 respectively. Historically, NPK fertilizer was applied once annually in station 1 for 3 years, in station 2 for 15 years, and in station 4 for 5 years while station 3 was regarded as the control with no fertilizer application at all. The sampling period spanned from August, 2017 to October 2017. Sampling was carried out once a month using soil auger to collect soil samples and twice a month for soil fauna. Soil samples were collected and put in black polythene bags already labelled stations 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, after which they were taken to the laboratory for the determination of percentage organic matter, percentage organic carbon and other physical and chemical parameters. Data was analyzed using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test for significant difference in invertebrate fauna abundance and taxa distribution in the stations.
A total of 102 individuals of macrofauna made up of 13 species in 12 families were found across the stations. Station 1 had 26 invertebrates, station 2 had 22, station 3 had 28 and station 4 had 26 respectively. In conclusion, there was no significant differences (p=0.974862) in the invertebrate fauna abundance across these sampled stations, an indication that the fertilizer application in the study area did not have any significant effect on the invertebrate fauna community in the study area.
