| Summary: | An experiment was carried out in Santa Maria, RS, to study the effects of different soil and leaf diseases management for watermelon on soil fauna. The treatments were: 1) Conventional Tillage (CT) 2) CT with strip (s) without plowing; 3) No-Till (NT)+Chisel (Ch)+Herbicide (H); 4) NT+Ch without H; 5) NT+H and 6) NT. All NT had black oat straw over the soil. The subplots had the leaf disease control treatments: 1) Check Plot, without control; 2) Chemical, with fungicide; Ecological, with a mixture of "calda bordalesa� + "Supermagro� + "Alhol�. Tretzel pitfalls traps were placed in plots before seeding and in subplots during watermelon vegetative cycle. Samplings were done: at 45 and 5 days before and at 30, 67 and 90 days after watermelon seeding. Each trap stayed 4 days at field. Were calculated richness, abundance and Simpson's diversity index (SDI). Acari population was higher in CTs than NT+Ch and Collembola population was higher in CTs than in NT+Ch+H, NT+Ch e NT+H, before watermelon seeding. However, Collembola population in CT and CTs was smaller than NT at 90 DAS. Coleoptera population was smaller in CTs than in NT+Ch+H and NT, while Hymenoptera population was not affected by soil management. Conventional tillage in strips decreased richness at 5 and 30 days before watermelon seeding and abundance at 90 DAS. NT treatments didn´t affect richness and abundance. Chemical leaf disease management increased abundance. Simpson's diversity index was not affected by soil management nor by leaf disease management.
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