Earthworm diversity is regulated by soil properties in land use systems of Eastern Ghats, India

Abstract

To understand the impact of soil properties and land use systems on earthworm diversity in the biodiversity-rich Eastern Ghats Highlands of India, the present study was carried out in six land use systems i.e., moist deciduous forest, dry deciduous forest, fallow land, cropland, compost pit, and, sewage soil. The study area has been divided into 10 × 10 km2 grids and 25% grids were randomly selected for sampling from May to December 2022. A total of 16 species of earthworms under 14 genera and 8 families were recorded in this study, out of which 15 species are new records for the region. The most taxonomically rich family was the Megascolecidae. The most abundant species are endogeic followed by epigeic and anecic. Based on Hill numbers, the highest values of Shannon index (1D= 9.89) and Simpson diversity (2D= 9.14) were found for the fallow land. Earthworm abundance showed a significant difference among six land use systems [F (5,84) = 3.25, p = 0.01]. Furthermore, earthworms showed a significant positive relationship with moisture (r = 0.22, p < 0.05), organic Carbon (r = 0.25, p < 0.05), available Nitrogen (r = 0.22, p < 0.05), and clay content (r = 0.43, p < 0.01), whereas negatively correlate with sand content (r = 0.32, p < 0.01) of soil. High species richness was observed in cropland due to the high moisture, pH, organic Carbon, Potassium, and, Phosphorus content of the soil. The presence of a high number of native species urges their conservation in this region through land management.