Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
dens and extensive, deep, permanent vertical burrows, and live in them.
Formation of vertical burrows affects airwater relationship and movement
from deep layers to surface helps in effi cient mixing of nutrients. Lum-
bricus terrestris, L. polyphemus and Aporrectodea longa are examples of
aneceics earthworms (Kooch and Jalilvand 2008). Epigeics and aneceics
are harnessed largely for vermicomposting (Asha et al. 2008). Epigeics
namely Eisenia foetida (Hartenstein et al. 1979), Eudrilus eugeniae (Kale
and Bano 1988), Perionyx excavatus (Sinha et al. 2002; Suthar and Singh
2008) and Eisenia anderi (Munnoli et al. 2010) have been used in convert-
ing organic wastes into vermicompost. These surface dwellers capable of
working on litter layers converting them into manure are of no signifi cant
value in modifying the soil structure. In contrast, anecics such as Lampito
mauritii are effi cient creators of an effective drilosphere as well as ex-
cellent compost producers (Ismail 1997). Earthworms thus act as natural
bio-reactors, altering the nature of the organic waste by fragmenting them.
Earthworm activity engineers the soil by forming extensive burrows
which loosen the soil and makes it porous. These pores improve aera-
tion, water absorption, drainage and easy root penetration. Soil aggregates
formed by earthworms and associated microbes, in the casts and burrow
walls play an indispensible role in soil air ecosystem. These aggregates
are mineral granules bonded in a way to resist erosion and to avoid soil
compaction both in wet and dry condition. Earthworms speed up soil rec-
lamation and make them productive by restoring benefi cial microfl ora
(Nakamura 1996). Thus degraded unproductive soils and land degraded
by mining could be engineered physically, chemically and biologically
and made productive by earthworms. Hence earthworms are termed as
ecosystem engineers (Brown et al. 2000; Munnoli et al. 2010).
9.3 VERMICOMPOSTING
Vermicomposting is a non-thermophilic biological oxidation process in
which organic material are converted into vermicompost which is a peat
like material, exhibiting high porosity, aeration, drainage, water holding
capacity and rich microbial activities (Edwards 1998; Atiyeh et al. 2000b;
Arancon et al. 2004a), through the interactions between earthworms and
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search