Impacts of Silage Tarps on Soil Arthropods, Soil Properties and Crop Yields

This Graduate Student Grant project, conducted by Eva Kinnebrew, used Participatory Action Research approaches to examine the pros and cons of silage tarping on yield and the biodiversity of below-ground organisms.

The project revealed that tarps dramatically reduced weed cover (around 30% weed cover in tarped plots versus 90% in control plots) and doubled crop yields. Kinnebrew’s project also shined a light on the impacts of tarps on soil arthropods. Tarping caused an immediate decline in surface-active species, like ants and beetles, but these communities quickly recovered after tarps were removed. The effects of tarps on soil-dwelling species, like springtails and millipedes, were more subtle, with some evidence of a slow progressive decline in their biodiversity in the weeks after tarps were removed. Tarps’ negative impacts were not as significant as Kinnebrew had anticipated, and these results may show some promise in the sustainability of this practice. However, Kinnebrew stresses the need for further research to understand tarps’ effects more fully, especially in comparison to other practices and after many years of continuous tarp use.