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Earthworm Community Structures in Three Wetland Ecosystems with Reference to Soil Physicochemical Properties

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Abstract

In the present study, the earthworm community structures and their relationship with physico-chemical properties of soil in three wetland ecosystems were studied. A total of six species of earthworms were reported from these sites i.e. Metaphire posthuma, Amynthas morrisi, Lampito mauritii, Octochaetona beatrix, Eutyphoeus waltoni and Eutyphoeus nichlosoni. A significant positive correlation of earthworm individuals with the clay, silt, K and moisture was observed while a negative correlation was observed with soil EC, TDS, Cr, Ni, Zn, and Fe. The principal component analysis was applied to predict the key soil factors responsible for affecting the earthworm abundance. The two major components viz. C1 and C2 with variance (%) of 58.92 and 41.08 respectively were resulted from this analysis which reveals the effects of different soil variables on earthworm distribution and abundance. Harike wetland had minimum earthworm abundance as the soil of Harike wetland has the highest content of EC, TDS and heavy metals. This study is indenture with only soil properties but further investigation is required to predict earthworm species based on vegetation, cultivation and other environmental factors.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, GOI, New Delhi for financial assistance in the form of a Major research project letter No SR/SO/AS-030/2013. We are also thankful to Dr. J. M. Julka (Ex Scientist, Zoological Survey of India), Shoolini University, Solan (Himachal Pradesh, India) for confirmation of identified earthworm species.

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Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi (Project Letter No SR/SO/AS-030/2013).

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  1. Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, India

    Sharanpreet Singh & Adarsh Pal Vig

  2. Department of Zoology, Khalsa College, Amritsar, Punjab, India

    Jaswinder Singh

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Singh, S., Singh, J. & Vig, A.P. Earthworm Community Structures in Three Wetland Ecosystems with Reference to Soil Physicochemical Properties. Proc Zool Soc 75, 231–241 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-022-00436-3

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