Summary
Summary A comparative study was conducted on earthworm communities in a conventional winter wheat monocropping system and a low‐input intercropping system in which successive crops of winter wheat were direct‐drilled into a permanent white clover sward. Earthworm abundance, biomass and species composition under the two cropping systems in the second and third years of successive cropping were assessed each spring and autumn in farm‐scale field plots at four sites using formalin and electrical extraction methods: The wheat‐clover cropping system supported larger earthworm communities (overall mean abundance 548 individuals m −2 , 137 g biomass m −2 ) than conventional wheat monocropping (194 individuals m‐2, 36 g biomass m‐2). Between one and five more earthworm species were recorded in the wheat‐clover system than in the wheat system at three out of the four study sites. Wheat–clover cropping especially favoured species belonging to the epigeic and epigeic/anecic ecological groups such as Lumbricus castaneus, L. festivus, L. rubellus , juvenile Lumbricus and Satchellius mammalis . Earthworm communities in the wheat‐clover cropping system were comparable in size and species composition to communities normally found in perennial grassland‐type habitats such as pastures and grass‐legume leys.
Outcomes reported
Summary A comparative study was conducted on earthworm communities in a conventional winter wheat monocropping system and a low‐input intercropping system in which successive crops of winter wheat were direct‐drilled into a permanent white clover sward. Earthworm communities in the wheat‐clover cropping system were comparable in size and species composition to communities normally found in perennial grassland‐type habitats such as pastures and grass‐legume leys. Source report: What Your Food Ate — Montgomery & Biklé (2022), ch.4: CONVENTIONAL DILEMMA Ref#: WYFA-0122 Original: Schmidt, O., et al. 2001. Earthworm communities in conventional wheat monocropping and low-input wheat–c lover intercropping systems. Annals of Applied Biology 138:377–388.
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