Abstract
The irrigation with sewage wastewater is a severe threat for the existence of soil macro faunal communities. For this reason, it
is a dire need to uphold their virtue for future concern. Current research was planned to check the impact of contaminated
sewage wastewater on soil macro fauna in selected cauliflower and tomato fields, in district Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. A
total of 7845 specimens belonging to 160 species were observed during consecutive two years study. Tomato fields showed
higher population 35.25% (N=2766) of soil macrofauna in control than treated 27.89% (N=2188) fields, similarly control
cauliflower fields showed higher population 27.95% (N=2192) than treated 8.91% (N=699). Overall species richness was
higher in tomato (12.57) than in cauliflower (11.54) fields. The Coleoptera was the most frequent order (44 species) in both
fields. Maximum diversity index was recorded from control treatment in tomato field (2.937), maximum dominance was
documented from tomato field treated with sewage water (0.497) and higher evenness (0.846) was recorded in cauliflower
fields irrigated with sewage water. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) showed that selected micronutrients,
macronutrients and edaphic factors were correlated to species distribution and a tool to figure out the soil macrofaunal diversity.
So, it was concluded that when heavy metals; lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) are present in wastewater they cause
hazardous effects on inhabiting soil flora and fauna by reducing quality and quantity of food and functioning of soil macrofauna
populations, moreover, decline the soil fauna density and abundance.
Sobia Kanwal, Naureen Rana. (2020) USE OF SEWAGE WASTEWATER IN AGRICULTURE AND ITS EFFECTS ON SOIL MACROFAUNA, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 57, Issue 3.
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