Rapid changes in cotton farming practices and the introduction of new synthetic insecticides and control strategies over the last 10-15 years are likely to have led to significant changes in the species diversity and abundance of beneficial crop canopy insects, soil fauna and soil microflora. However, there have been no studies investigating the effects of these changes in Australian cotton farming practices on beneficial soil fauna since the 1970s and early 1980s (Bishop and Blood 1977; Room 1977; Bishop and Blood 1980). As the Australian cotton industry strives to develop more viable, sustainable and environmentally responsible farming and crop protection practices, detailed and up to date knowledge of the key functional groups of soil fauna and their respective contributions to the cotton agroecosystem performance becomes increasingly essential. The objectives of this baseline research project, which started late in the 1993-94 growing season, were to: (a) develop a soil fauna sampling protocol for cotton agroecosystems, (b) enumerate the principal ecological groups of soil fauna present and (c) for chosen groups, characterise and compare the resultant short term changes in soil fauna biodiversity under different farming and crop protection practices. For the 1995-96 cotton growing season the effects of cotton production on the biodiversity of surface-active soil meso- and macrofauna were studied using pitfall traps and soil cores in single irrigated cotton fields at &quote;Doreen&quote; and at the Australian Cotton Research Institute (Environfeast demonstration field). Here we report on the results for the soil predators component of the 1995-96 season at &quote;Doreen&quote;.