Earthworm Communities in Flower Strip Mixtures

Incorporation of flower strips is an agricultural measure to increase aboveground biodiversity and ecosystem services. Although soil communities are key components of terrestrial biodiversity and drive important ecosystem services, their abundance, diversity, and composition in flower strips remain largely unexplored. Here, we shed light on earthworms in flower strips. We sowed a field margin vegetation as well as two annual and two perennial flower strip mixtures in fully randomized plots of 9×28 m in three different types of soil in Germany. Two years following sowing, we determined earthworm communities using chemical extraction. Different plant mixtures (i.e. field margin, annual and perennial flower strip mixtures) harbored distinct earthworm communities. Earthworm density and biomass declined or remained unaffected in annual flower strips but increased in perennial flower strips as compared to the field margin vegetation. We attribute changes in earthworm communities mainly to the effect of tillage and plant diversity.

Research domain: Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes

Research question: None