Soil Surface Invertebrates Across Different Planting Choices on Purchase College Campus

Abstract

Loss of biodiversity driven by human activity is one of the most apparent changes that has come with climate change. Soil invertebrates are an especially important group of biota to be concerned about due to the variety of organisms who rely on their ecosystem services. This study compares invertebrate order composition across three different planting choices on Purchase College campus. The three different planting choices were native plants, ornamental non-native plants and lawns. A statistically significant difference was found between lawn and native plant and non-native ornamental when the total number of invertebrates were compared across site types. Lawn had a higher median total number of invertebrates. The Shannon Diversity Indexes across site types were looked at. Lawn had the highest Shannon Diversity Index but numbers across all site types did not vary greatly. This study was done on a small scale and in a short time frame; it would be valuable to see it done over multiple years to get a better assessment of soil invertebrate communities. Planting native still remains an important endeavor to support pollinating insects who also provide many ecosystem services.