Fluctuations in Soil Acarine fauna of Vegetable crops as influenced by Climatic and Edaphic factors

Acarine fauna of upper soil and deep soil zones of fruit crops showed that irrespective of crop, mites were more frequently encountered in upper soil zone as compared to root zone. Irrespective of soil zone, cryptostigmatid mites were more abundant (41.9%) followed by astigmatid (22.5%) and mesostigmatid (19.3%) mites. In upper soil zone, brinjal crop harboured maximum number of mites (9 mites/100 g of soil) followed by okra (7 mites) and cabbage (4 mites). The frequency of occurrence of mites in okra and brinjal was minimum at the initiation of the survey thereafter, it increased till the end of study period, however, at cabbage field, it was maximum at the initiation of the survey, thereafter, it declined with no mites was found in the month of July and August. A significant positive correlation was observed between mite population and % organic carbon, moisture content and available phosphorus in brinjal, okra and cabbage soil, whereas, a significant negative correlation was obtained between mite population and available potassium and pH. Among climatic factors, mtie population was significantly positively correlated with relative humidity in cabbage (r=0.923), okra (r=0.934) and brinjal (r=0.873) fields whereas it was negatively correlated with maximum temperature in three crops (r=-0.950; -0.924 & -0.889, respectively).