Review Article

Role of Earthworms in Soil Fertility Maintenance through the Production of Biogenic Structures

Table 2

Effect of land conversion and management practices on changes in functional catagories of earthworms in the Indo-Gangetic plains, ( SE, ).

SitesDensity (Anecic)    (Individuals m-2 year-1)Biomass (Anecic) (gm-2 year-1)Density (Endogeics) (Individuals m-2 year-1)Biomass (Endogeics) (gm-2 year-1)

Primary forest141 ( 3.2)a123 ( 11.6)a2127 ( 13.8)a2255.8 ( 20.6)a
Productive agroecosystem1141 ( 11.6)b1323 ( 23.5)b275 ( 6.3)b2157.5 ( 13.3)b
Low productive agroecosystem1106 ( 7.9)c1318 ( 27.8)b245 ( 3.2)c294.5 ( 6.8)c
Agriculture fallow164 ( 3.8)d142 ( 2.9)c2274 ( 14.6)d2518.7 ( 42.6)d
Sodic ecosystems0000
5-year-old reclaimed agroecosystem00 143 ( 12.7)e114.4 ( 5.8)c
10-year-old reclaimed agroecosystem00 282 ( 24.7)d160.6 ( 15.3)b
Acacia plantation in reclaimed soils144( 5.3)a1132 ( 5.9)a2133 ( 9.6)a2279.3( 21.5)e

Values followed by the different superscript letters are significantly different in different sampling sites. Values followed by different subscript numbers are significantly different in same sampling sites [11].