Arthropod fauna in hydroponic production of strawberries

Abstract

Hydroponics contributes to overcoming constraints on soil productivity or the excessive consumption of production factors, allowing anticipation and prolongation of production, as well as greater cost-effectiveness. This assay was carried out in order to understand how these changes may affect the living organisms that exist in this ecosystem, in particular the arthropod population (pests and beneficials). A weekly monitoring was carried out between March and June 2015, in order to identify the arthropod fauna present in a hydroponic strawberry production in a superintensive system, located in Viseu district. By visual observation we were able to identify 2391 arthropods, distributed by two classes, seven orders and nine families. Through adhesive chromotropic traps, 6436 arthropods were identified, distributed in four classes, fourteen orders and 174 morpho-species. The classes represented were: Arachnida, Entognata, Insecta and Malacostraca, with greater abundance of the Insecta class (6284 insects of nine orders).