THE EFFECTS OF PESTICIDE APPLICATION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF GROUND BEETLE (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE)

The study was carried out to compare the bio-diversity parameters of the ground beetle species in apple orchards managed by conventional and organic farming between 2016 and 2017. Four apple orchards were selected to achieve mentioned aim and 10 pitfall traps were placed in each of the gardens to sample Carabid species. Species richness in gardens managed by organic methods and not pesticides applied was found to be higher than the gardens which were managed with conventional methods and thus applied pesticides. Moreover both the Shannon-Wiener and Simpson diversity indexes were calculated higher in organic apple orchards and found with similar results as species richness for both study years. As expect, dominancy inversely proportional to diversity was measured lower at the gardens managed by organic farming. Population density due to individual of the species, Shannon Evenness, showed mostly unevenly distributed on the graphs at apple orchards managed by conventional methods. The Sorenson Coefficient results, measured monthly between May and August for both years, 2016 and 2017, were defined that the similarities proportion decreased between two different types of the apple orchards (managed by organic, OAF, and conventional, CAF) as long as increasing of pesticide applications. According to the result of the study; as applications of the pesticides increased the richness and diversity of the insect species which present in these kind of agro-ecosystems decreased.