2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Impact of cropping system on earthworm community

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21880051
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Boundary agriculture
Research Institution	National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
Principal Investigator	KANEDA Satoshi National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, 生物生態機能研究領域, 任期付研究員 (00537920)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	ミミズ / 持続的農業生産 / 土壌生態系 / 栽培体系
Research Abstract	Earthworm, however, is important soil fauna in sustainable agricultural systems, still now impacts of cropping system on earthworm community are unknown in Japan. In this study, we tried to develop culturing and sampling methods of earthworm, and investigated impacts of cropping systems on earthworm community. Non-volcanic ash soils were better than volcanic ash soils for culturing Japanese native species. We can collect over 90% of earthworm biomass from 0 to 30cm soil depth. Earthworm biomass was high in no tillage system, but the biomass in organic farming system, in which there is no chemical fertilizer and pesticides application, was as low as the biomass in conventional farm.