Role of green manure and bare soil in influencing carabid and slug populations in fields under different management

Abstract: The effects on carabid and slug populations of a wintertime green manure in organic management compared to bare soil in low-input conventional management, were assayed in six experimental fields in the nearby of Pisa (Italy). Pitfall traps were placed in three different periods, from November 2015 to June 2016. The captures showed significant differences between the fields with green manure, compared to those with winter fallow, with a higher number of slug (about 99 %) and carabid (about 90 %) of the specimens collected. No differences emerged about the diversity and evenness indeces, showing that the contribution on biodiversity of any agronomic practice is complicate and hard to evaluate, because the complexity of the relationships among organisms and the environmental factors.