The Effect of Long‐Term Underlying Management on Soil Faunal Communities of a Newly Established Herbal Ley

ABSTRACT Soil ecosystems support a diverse range of life essential for a functioning soil. However, agricultural establishment methods like tillage intensity have been shown to directly affect soil fauna populations. Soil fauna diversity and abundance were investigated following a 10‐year experiment testing different crop establishment systems in an arable crop rotation. Large plots (30 × 100 m) within a randomised block design were established using either a plough‐based system, minimum tillage or no tillage using a direct drill. Significant differences were found between the cultivation systems for several biological groups together with seasonal differences. Overall, total mesofauna was greatest in minimum and no till plots having greater numbers of cari, total Collembola and collembolan superfamilies oduromorpha and S ymphypleona . Nematode abundance was also greater in the minimum and no till plots. Although total earthworm abundance did not differ between cultivations, there were differences between functional groups with anecic species being more prevalent in the least disturbed soils. Overall, findings demonstrated that the effects of long‐term tillage treatments are visible across the whole soil food web. This could have long term impacts on ecosystem services even when land management has changed to a conservation focus. Further analysis did not find any clear linkage between soil physical assessments which could be useful as soil biological indicators.