Abundance and Diversity of Top Soil Earthworms in Relation to Chemical Use in Golden Rose Agrofarm, Tefki Area, Ethiopia
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Despite the current environmental controversies, flower farms are
becoming hot areas of investment in Ethiopia. Golden Rose Agro Farm is
one of the largest, and the pioneer, flower industries in the country. To
study the abundance and distribution of top soil earthworms in relation to
chemical use in the farm, a total of 208 1mx1 m quadrates were marked
on the ground in 10 randomly selected greenhouses. Similarly, 208
quadrates were marked in the outside chemical-free farm for comparison.
Soil was then dug to a depth of 15 cm in all of the marked quadrates and
hand-sorted to collect top soil earthworms. Eight plastic buckets, each
filled with soil at 15 cm depth, were taken and 15 adult worms originally
from chemical-free soil were introduced in to each and all were put in the
greenhouses, some under chemical treatment and some free for
comparison. Worms from the rose farm were also transferred to chemicalfree
soil and changes were observed after 20 days. Earthworms were
taxonomically identified to genus level using taxonomic keys. There was
strong statistically significant variation in abundance of both adult and
juvenile top soil earthworms between the two farms (P < 0.01, α=0.05). Out
of the 75 adult worms introduced into the chemical-treated buckets, 98.7%
(74) were dead, and in the Chemical-free buckets, out of the 45 worms
originally introduced, about 95.6% (38 adult and 5 juveniles) were
recaptured. About four genera of earthworms were identified in the study
area, but majority of them belong to the genus Eiseniella and
Dendrobaena. Seasonal variation in number and distribution of
earthworms was also observed in the study. Chemical use in Golden Rose
Agrofarm strongly affected abundance and distribution of top soil
earthworms in the area