Soil infiltration as affected by the age and ecological groups of earthworm population

摘要

The earthworm population was investigated in differently fertilized plots of a long term field experiment in Braunschweig. The investigation was conducted in order to estimate the different impacts of the earthworm population as abundance, biomass, age and ecological groups on the water infiltration rate of agricultural soils. The results revealed that the effect of earthworm abundance on soil infiltration rate was greater compared to the effect of earthworm biomass. The numbers of juvenile individuals were higher and more effective on infiltration than numbers of adult individuals. The soil infiltration rate was found significantly associated with the ecological groups of earthworms.