ABSTRACT

Earthworms are a major component of soil fauna communities with positive effects on soil chemical, biological and physical processes. A study was carried out to investigate the medium-term effects of cultural practices on earthworm communities in an agricultural field. Data were collected in the 2018/2019 cropping season from a six-year-old experiment with tillage system, fertiliser application rate and weeding intensity as the main, sub- and sub-subplots, respectively. Lumbricus (34.4%) and Diplocardia (38.3%) were the dominant genera, while endogeic earthworms (48.4%) dominated the community structure among other earthworm functional groups. Clean weeded plots under the basin planting system had higher Lumbricus abundance (quadruple), genus richness (76.4%) and Shannon diversity index (56.0%) than all other treatments. Inorganic fertiliser application in the conventional tillage system reduced Eisenia abundance and genus evenness by 100.0% and 73.3%, respectively. These results suggest that in minimum tillage systems, frequent hand weeding confers positive effects on earthworms including increased abundance. In conventional tillage systems, application of high doses of inorganic fertiliser is detrimental to earthworm communities. Further studies need to focus on identifying the most sustainable and cost-effective hand weeding frequency for enhanced earthworm diversity and increased crop productivity.

摘要

蚯蚓是土壤动物群落的主要组成部分，对土壤化学、生物和物理过程具有积极影响。进行了一项研究，以调查文化习俗对农田蚯蚓群落的中期影响。数据是在 2018/2019 种植季节从一个 6 年的试验中收集的，其中耕作制度、施肥量和除草强度分别作为主、子和子子地块。Lumbricus (34.4%) 和Diplocardia (38.3%) 是优势属，而内生蚯蚓 (48.4%) 在其他蚯蚓功能群中主导群落结构。流域种植系统下的清洁杂草地块具有较高的Lumbricus丰度（四倍）、属丰富度（76.4%）和香农多样性指数（56.0%）均高于所有其他处理。常规耕作系统中施用无机肥使艾塞尼亚的丰度和属均匀度分别降低了 100.0% 和 73.3%。这些结果表明，在最少耕作系统中，频繁的人工除草对蚯蚓有积极影响，包括增加丰度。在传统的耕作系统中，施用高剂量的无机肥料对蚯蚓群落有害。进一步的研究需要集中于确定最可持续和最具成本效益的手工除草频率，以增强蚯蚓多样性和提高作物生产力。