Villenave Cécile auteur aut IRD Rabary B. auteur aut IRD Chotte Jean-Luc auteur aut IRD Blanchart Eric auteur aut IRD Djigal D. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access The objective of this work was to assess the effects of conventional tillage and of different direct seeding mulch-based cropping systems (DMC) on soil nematofauna characteristics. The long-term field experiment was carried out in the highlands of Madagascar on an andic Dystrustept soil. Soil samples were taken once a year during three successive years (14 to 16 years after installation of the treatments) from a 0-5-cm soil layer of a conventional tillage system and of three kinds of DMC: direct seeding on mulch from rotation soybean-maize residues; direct seeding of maize-maize rotation on living mulch of silverleaf (Desmodium uncinatum); direct seeding of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)-soybean rotation on living mulch of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum). The samples were compared with samples from natural fallows. The soil nematofauna, characterized by the abundance of different trophic groups and indices (MI, maturity index; EI and SI, enrichment and structure indices), allowed the discrimination of the different cropping systems. The different DMC treatments had a more complex soil food web than the tillage treatment: SI and MI were significantly greater in DMC systems. Moreover, DMC with dead mulch had a lower density of free-living nematodes than DMC with living mulch, which suggested a lower microbial activity. specialized crop residues indicator living mulch Nematoda soil functioning MADAGASCAR 074 44 8 949-953 2009 0100-204X https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048475 0100-204X [F B010048475] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048475 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2010/01/010048475.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2010-02-08 2020-06-12 fdi:010048475 fre