Biodiversity of Soil Invertebrates in Sugar Cane Plantations with the Different Application of Sugar Distillery Spent Wash

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the biodiversity of soil invertebrates in the various utilization of spent wash liquor in sugar cane plantations. Soil invertebrates were collected in the four different spent wash liquor applications: 1) control plot, 2) applied with spent wash liquor for 1 year plot, 3) applied with spent wash liquor for 2 years plot and 4) applied with spent wash liquor for 4 years plot. The soil invertebrate samples were collected by random sampling during November 2012 to October 2013. The results showed that a total of 7 orders comprising 42 species of 31 families were collected in this study. The density of soil invertebrates in the areas of spent wash liquor application was significantly higher than those in the control plot. The Shannon-Wiener’s species diversity index indicated that the diversity was the highest in the plantation applied with spent wash liquor for 2 year (2.26), followed by that of applied with spent wash liquor for 4 years (2.06), applied with spent wash liquor at 1 year (2.04) and lastly the control plot (1.57).