Earthworm communities in conventional wheat monocropping and low-input wheat-clover intercropping systems

Citation
O. Schmidt et al., Earthworm communities in conventional wheat monocropping and low-input wheat-clover intercropping systems, ANN AP BIOL, 138(3), 2001, pp. 377-388
Citations number
35
Categorie Soggetti
Agriculture/Agronomy
Journal title
ANNALS OF APPLIED BIOLOGY
ISSN journal
00034746 → ACNP
Volume
138
Issue
3
Year of publication
2001
Pages
377 - 388
Database
ISI
SICI code
0003-4746(2001)138:3<377:ECICWM>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
A comparative study was conducted on earthworm communities in a conventiona l winter wheat monocropping system and a low-input intercropping system in which successive crops of winter wheat were direct-drilled into a permanent white clover sward. Earthworm abundance, biomass and species composition u nder the two cropping systems in the second and third years of successive c ropping were assessed each spring and autumn in farm-scale field plots at f our sites using formalin and electrical extraction methods. The wheat-clove r cropping system supported larger earthworm communities (overall mean abun dance 548 individuals m(-2), 137 g biomass m(-2)) than conventional wheat m onocropping (194 individuals m(-2), 36 g biomass m(-2)). Between one and fi ve more earthworm species were recorded in the wheat-clover system than in the wheat system at three out of the four study sites. Wheat-clover croppin g especially favoured species belonging to the epigeic and epigeic/anecic e cological groups such as Lumbricus castaneus, L. festivus, L. rubellus, juv enile Lumbricus and Satchellius mammalis. Earthworm communities in the whea t-clover cropping system were comparable in size and species composition to communities normally found in perennial grassland-type habitats such as pa stures and grass-legume leys.