Annual changes in earthworm communities along a gradient of forest disturbance

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/06/2018
Views (287) Download (7)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

Annual changes in earthworm communities along a gradient of forest disturbance

Arnauth Martinez Guéi, Ferdinand Gohi Bi Zro, Hebert Damien Akré Abobi
Int. J. Biosci.12( 6), 450-459, June 2018.
Certificate: IJB 2018 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

Annual variation in both earthworm abundance and diversity was studied along a land-use gradient in West-Centre region of Côte d’Ivoire. The aim was to assess the impact of human activities on earthworm abundance and diversity, in order to design sustainable management strategies for agricultural land-use. We mainly checked for an increasing trend in earthworm communities, along a gradient of forest disturbance during the first sampling year (2016). For this reason, earthworm populations were sampled in the following year (2017) during the same period, using similar sampling procedure. Both earthworm density and biomass were 108.0±7.8 ind.m-2 and 21.6±2g.m-2, respectively in 2016. These values were higher than those obtained in 2017, which were 65.4±7.6 ind.m-2 and 10.5±1.1g.m-2, respectively. A similar trend was observed in earthworm diversity. Species richness varied from 5.2±0.2 in 2016 to 3.2±0.2 in 2017, the Shannon index from 1.8±0.0 to 1.2±0.1 and cumulative species from 11 to 12 species. The trend in 2016 was confirmed in 2017, with earthworm abundance and diversity increasing from primary forest to annual crop fields. The fallow systems showed higher abundance and diversity, whereas forest soils had lower values. Between-analyses revealed the prominence of land management impact over the temporal effect. The earthworm species, such as Hyperiodrilus africanus, was the most common in annual crop fields (52.3±12.6 ind.m-2 in 2016 vs 19.2±4.1 ind.m-2 in 2017), making this species a good indicator of disturbed ecosystems.

VIEWS 7

Anderson JM, Ingram J. 1993. Tropical soil biology and fertility: A handbook of methods. CABI, Oxford 171p.

Assié KH, Angui KTP, Tamia AJ. 2008. Effet de la mise en culture et des contraintes naturelles sur quelques propriétés physiques ferrallitiques au Centre-Ouest de la Côte d’Ivoire : Conséquences sur la dégradation des sols. European Journal of Scientific Research 23(1), 149-166. https://www.eurojournals. com/ejsr.htm

Barros E, Pashanasi B, Constantino R, Lavelle P. 2002. Effect of land-use system on the soil macrofauna in Brazilian Amazonia. Biology Fertility and Soils 35, 338-347. https://doi 10.1007/s00374-002-0479-z

Blanchart E, Albrecht A, Brown G, Decaens T, Duboisset A, Lavelle P, Mariani L, Roose E. 2004. Effects of tropical endogeic earthworms on soil erosion. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 104, 303-315. https://doi :10.1016/j.agee.2004.01.031

Cole L, Buckland SM, Bardgett RD. 2008. Influence of disturbance and nitrogen addition on plant and soil animal diversity in grassland. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40, 505-514. https://doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.09.018

Csuzdi C, Tondoh EJ. 2007. New and little-known earthworm species from the Ivory Coast (Oligochaeta: acanthodrilidae: Benhamiinia-Eudrilidae). Journal of Natural History 41, 2551-2567. https://doi.org/10. 1080/00222930701742629

Curry JP, Byrne D, Schmidt O. 2002. Intensive cultivation can drastically reduce earthworm populations in arable land. European Journal of Soil Biology 38, 127-130.

Decaëns T, Bureau F, Margerie P. 2003. Earthworm communities in a wet agriculture landscape of the Seine Valley (Upper Normandy, France). Pedobiologia 47, 479-489. https://doi.org/10.1078/ 0031-4056-00217

Decaëns T, Jiménez JJ. 2002. Earthworm communities under an agricultural intensification gradient in Colombia. Plant and Soil 240, 133-143.

Dlamini TC, Haynes RJ. 2004. Influence of agricultural land use on the size and composition of earthworm communities in northern Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Applied Soil Ecology 27, 77-88.

Dolédec S, Chessel D. 1989. Rythmes saisonniers et composantes stationnelles en milieu aquatique II. Prise en compte et élimination d’effets dans un tableau faunistique. Acta Oecologica Oecologia Generalis 10, 207-232.

Dolédec S, Chessel D. 1991. Recents developments in linear ordination methods for environmental Sciences. Advances in Ecology India 1, 133-155. http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/R/articles/arti066.pdf

Giller KE, Beare MH, Lavelle P, Izac AMN, Swift MJ. 1997. Agricultural intensification, soil biodiversity and agroecosystems function. Applied Soil Ecology 6, 3-16.

Gilot C. 1994. Determination of origin of the different growing abilities of two populations of Millsonia omodeoi (Omodeo and Vaillaud), a tropical geophageous earthworm. European Journal of Soil Biology 39(3), 125-131.

Golchin A, Asgari H. 2008. Land-use effects on soil quality indicators in north-eastern Iran. Australian Journal of Soil Research 46, 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1071/SR07049

Guéi AM, Tondoh EJ. 2012. Ecological preferences of earthworms for land-use types in semi-deciduous forest area, Ivory Coast. Ecological Indicators 18, 644-651. https://doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.01.018

Holmstrup M. 2001. Sensitivity of life history parameters in the earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa to small changes in soil water potential. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 33, 1217-1223. https://doi: 10.1016/S0038-0717(01)00026-8

Huston MA. 1994. Biological diversity: the coexistence of species on changing landscapes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315400015393

Lahr J, Kools SAE, van der Hout A, Faber JH. 2008. Combined effects of zinc and earthworm density on soil ecosystem functioning. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40, 334-341. https://doi:10.1016/ j.soilbio.2007.08.012

Lavelle P, Dangerfield M, Fragoso C. 1994. The relationship between soil macrofauna and tropical soil fertility. In Tropical Soil Biology and fertility (Swift M. J and Woomer P, Eds), John Wiley-Sayce, New York 137-69.

Lavelle P, Decaëns T, Aubert M, Barot S, Blouin M, Bureau F, Margerie P, Mora P, Rossi JP. 2006. Soil invertebrates and ecosystem service. European Journal of Soil Biology 42, S3-S15. https://doi: 10.1016/j.ejsobi.2006.10.002

Lavelle P, Spain A. 2001. Soil ecology, 1st edition Kluwer, Amsterdam 654p.

Lavelle P. 1978. Les vers de terre de la savane de Lamto (Côte d’Ivoire): Peuplements, Populations et Fonctions dans l’écosystème. Publication du Laboratoire Zoologique, ENS, 12, 30 p.

Lavelle P. 1979. Relation entre types écologiques et profils démographiques chez les vers de terre de la savane de Lamto (Côte d’Ivoire). Revue d’Ecologie et de Biologie du Sol 16, 85-101.

Marichal R, Martinez AF, Praxedesc C, Ruiz D, Carvajal AF, Oszwald J, Hurtado M, Brown GG, Grimaldi M, Desjardins T, Sarrazin M, Decaëns T, Velasquez E, Lavelle P. 2010. Invasion of Pontoscolex corethrurus (Glossoscolecidae, Oligochaeta) in landscapes of the Amazonian deforestation arc. Applied Soil Ecology 46, 443-449.

N’Dri JK, N’Guessan KK. 2018. Modification of Topsoil Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Macroinvertebrates Structure Consecutive to the Conversion of Secondary Forests into Rubber Plantations in Grand-Lahou, Côte d’Ivoire. Journal of Advances in Agriculture 8(1), 1235-1255.

Rossi JP, Blanchart E. 2005. Seasonal and land-use induced variations of soil macrofauna composition in Western Ghats, southern India. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 37, 1093-1104. https:// doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2004.11.008

Roxburgh SH, Shea K, Wilson JB. 2004. The intermediate disturbance hypothesis: Patch dynamics and mechanisms of species coexistence. Ecology 85(2), 359-371. https://doi.org/10.1890/03-0266

Sanabria C, Dubs F, Lavelle P, Fonte SJ, Barot S. 2016. Influence of regions, land uses and soil properties on termite and ant communities in agricultural landscapes of the Colombian Llanos. European Journal of Soil Biology 74, 81-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2016.03.008

Thioulouse J, Chessel D, Dolédec S, Olivier JM. 1997. ADE-4: a multivariate analysis and graphical display software. Statistics and Computing 7, 75-83.

Tondoh EJ, Lavelle P. 2005. Population dynamics of Hyperiodrilus africanus (Oligochaeta, Eudrilidae) in Ivory Coast. Journal of Tropical Ecology 21, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467405002506

Tondoh EJ, Monin ML, Tiho S, Csuzdi C. 2007. Can earthworms be used as bio-indicators of land-use perturbations in semi-deciduous forest? Biology Fertility and Soils 43, 585-592.

Tondoh EJ. 2006. Seasonal changes in earthworm diversity and community structure in central Côte d’Ivoire. European Journal of Soil Biology 42, S334-S340. https:// doi:10.1016/j.ejsobi.2006.09.003

World Soil Base for soil resource 2006. World Soil Resources reports, 103. A framework for international classification, correlation and communication. FAO, 127 p.