Ground‐dwelling invertebrates are vital for soil biodiversity and function maintenance. Contemporary biodiversity assessment necessitates novel and automatic monitoring methods because of the threat of sharp reductions in soil biodiversity in farmlands worldwide. Using infrared camera traps (ICTs) is an effective method for assessing richness and abundance of ground‐dwelling invertebrates. However, the influence that the shooting area of ICTs has on the diversity of ground‐dwelling invertebrates has not been strongly considered during survey design. In this study, data from six ICTs with two shooting areas (A1, 38.48 cm²; A2, 400 cm²) were used to investigate ground‐dwelling invertebrates in a farm in a city on the Eastern Coast of China from 20: 00 on July 31 to 00:00 on September 29, 2022. Over the course of 59 days and 1420 h, invertebrates within 9 taxa, 2447 individuals, and 112,909 ind./m² were observed from 222,912 images. Our results show that ICTs with relatively large shooting areas recorded relatively high taxonomic richness and abundance of total ground‐dwelling invertebrates, relatively high abundance of the dominant taxon, and relatively high daily and hourly abundance of most taxa. The shooting areas of ICTs significantly affected the recorded taxonomic richness and abundance of ground‐dwelling invertebrates throughout the experimental period and at fine temporal resolutions. Overall, these results suggest that the shooting areas of ICTs should be considered when designing experiments, and ICTs with relatively large shooting areas are more favorable for monitoring the diversity of ground‐dwelling invertebrates. This study further provides an automatic tool and high‐quality data for biodiversity monitoring and protection in farmlands.

We evaluated the hourly dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities in farmland using infrared camera traps between August and September 2022. No significant variations within 24 h nor between any two time points of each day were observed in the taxonomic richness and abundance of the entire community. However, the periods from 4:00 to 7:00 and 13:00 to 20:00 showed relatively high taxonomic richness, while those from 2:00 to 6:00 and 16:00 to 21:00 showed relatively high abundance. Millipede abundance varied significantly in a 24 h period, with higher abundance from 3:00 to 4:00 and 1:00 to 2:00. Additionally, slug, beetle, and grasshopper abundances were significantly higher from 22:00 to 23:00, 17:00 to 18:00, and 23:00 to 24:00, respectively. The abundance of other taxa did not show significant variations between any two time points of a day. Predominant generalist predators showed positive correlation in their activity times. These results suggest that significant variations within each 24 h period are uncommon at either community or taxa (except for millipedes) levels in farmland ground-dwelling invertebrates. Further, while most taxa had significantly preferred active hours, the total community did not. Therefore, hourly dynamics should be considered to understand biodiversity maintenance.

In the future, the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme weather may increase, thus posing a threat to soil biodiversity in farmlands, particularly in agricultural production bases. However, little is known about the effect of cold wave events on the soil fauna community compared with other extreme weathers. Laboratory experiments fail to capture the complicated field environment of cold wave events. We investigated soil fauna communities in facility farmland (strawberry) and open farmland (green cabbage) during a cold wave event in Ningbo City, southeastern China. The results showed that the taxonomic richness of the total soil fauna community in facility farmland was significantly lower than that in open farmland, but the difference in abundance was not significant. The taxonomic richness and body size of soil mites and collembolan communities in facility farmland were significantly lower than those in the open farmland. Obvious differences in abundance, mean body length, mean body width, and ratio of body width to body length of Scheloribatidae, Galumnidae, Onychiuridae, Entomobryidae, and Enchytraeidae were detected between facility farmland and open farmland. The results of this study showed that the taxonomic richness, abundance, and body size of the soil fauna community in open farmland were significantly higher than those in facility farmland during a cold wave event. We suggested that the open farmland could be a “refuge” and “hot spot” of soil fauna community during the cold wave events.

Ground-dwelling invertebrates are crucial for maintaining biodiversity, soil health, and food production in agricultural ecosystems; however, their diversity is declining globally. Despite advancements in data science and modern monitoring technology, conventional methods remain predominant in the current field investigations of ground-dwelling invertebrates in farmlands. This study aimed to develop simple, convenient, and automated methods to assess ground-dwelling invertebrate biodiversity in farmlands. Both camera and pitfall traps were used to monitor ground-dwelling invertebrates in two farmlands in Ningbo City, China. Over four experimental periods, lasting 34 days in the vineyard farmland and 32 days in the watermelon farmland, the camera traps detected a relatively high density of invertebrates, although the relative dominance of ant density was overestimated in both farmlands. Both methods revealed similar temporal dynamics of the ground-dwelling invertebrates during the four periods in the vineyard farmland. However, only camera traps recorded the temporal dynamics of the invertebrates at daily, hourly, and minute resolutions in both farmlands. Conclusively, this study demonstrates that combining camera and pitfall traps provides an effective method for monitoring the temporal dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrates in farmlands, offering high-quality data useful for ecological research and biodiversity protection in agricultural management.