Authors : Neeru Agrawal and Jaya Chandraker
Page Nos : 38-40
Description :
Earthworms are important soil macrofauna that have profound effects on ecosystems. They have attracted a lot of interest due to their beneficial effects, especially in agriculture (Brown 1995,Dechaine et al 2005,Larink et al 2001). Earthworms occur in most temperate soil & many tropical soils and they play an important role in maintaining the productivity of our soil. Epigeic, Endogeic & Enecic are three broad ecological groups of earthworms &. Each group tends to affect the forest differently. More than 1000 different earthworm species can be placed into one of three groups. In the present study sampling of soil near different vegetation sites was done to observe the effect of moisture, pH and type of vegetation on availability of different ecological groups of earthworm. Epigeic form of earthworms were observed in maximum while anecic forms in less number. No endogeic forms were reported. Overall availability of earthworms at various sites studied mainly affected by differences in moisture & pH of soil.
Keywords: Epigeic, Endogeic & Enecic
