| Cacao production has the potential to preserve biodiversity if less-intense cropping practices are used. Little research has been done showing benefits of low-disturbance cacao cultivation on the leaf litter invertebrate community, here used as an indicator of faunal diversity. The study took place at the Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales in Tarapoto, Peru. Leaf litter invertebrate samples were taken from secondary forest (SF), abandoned cacao (ABCS), young cacao (YCS), agroforestry (AFS), traditional management (TMS), and cover crop management (CCMS) systems.;Shannon diversity showed differences among most of the systems, while Bray-Curtis pairwise comparison showed ABCS and YCS were more similar and CCMS and SF were least similar. Indicator species analysis showed pseudoscorpiones and polydesmeda were significant indicators of SF. Principal Components Analysis showed differences in environmental variables among the treatments, which may help explain the differences in community structure. The results support the benefits to biodiversity of less-intense cacao agroforesty systems. |
