Oecologia (Berlin) 23:225–245īouché MB (1977) Strategies Lombriciennes. Mucchi, Modena, pp 151–158īolton PJ, Phillipson J (1976) Burrowing, feeding, egestion and energy budgets of A. In: Bonvicini Pagliai, Omodes P (eds) On earthworms. Soil Biol Biochem 18:539–541īarois I, Verdier B, Kaiser P, Mariotti A, Rangel P, Lavelle P (1987) Influence of the tropical earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus (Glossoscolecidae, Oligochaeta) on the fixation and mineralization of nitrogen. Pedobiologia 13:445–455īarois I, Lavelle P (1986) Changes in respiration rate and some physicochemical properties of a tropical soil during transit through Pontoscolex corethrurus (Glossoscolecidae, Oligochaeta). Blackwell, Oxford, pp 287–309Ītlavinyte O, Pociene C (1973) The effect of earthworms and their activity on the amount of algae in the soil. In: Sutton SL, Whitmore TC, Chedwick LC (eds). Curr Sci 27:213Īnderson JM, Swift MJ (1983) Decomposition in tropical forests. Thus earthworms represent a key component in the biological strategies of nutrient cycling in soils and the structure of their communities gives a clear indication of the type of soil system that they inhabit.Īgarwal G, Rao K, Negi L (1958) Influence of certain species of earthworms on the structure of some hill soils. By their physical activities and resultant chemical effects, earthworms promote short and rapid cycles of nutrients and assimilable carbohydrates. When present, they build and maintain the soil structure and take an active part in energy and nutrient cycling through the selective activation of both mineralization and humification processes.
Soil characteristics are both the determinant and the consequence of earthworm activities, since these animals greatly influence the functioning of the soil system. According to the food resource they exploit and the general environmental conditions, earthworms can be grouped into different functional categories which differ essentially in morphology, size, pigmentation, distribution in the soil profile, ability to dig galleries and produce surface casts, demographic profiles and relationships with the soil microflora. Earthworms find in soil the energy, nutrient resources, water and buffered climatic conditions that they need.
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