Earthworm, infiltration, and tillage relationships in a dryland pea–wheat rotation

• Published in: Applied soil ecology : a section of Agriculture, ecosystems & environment Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 187 - 192
• Main Author: Wuest, Stewart B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 2001; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Aporrectodea caliginosa; Biochemistry and biology; Biological and medical sciences; Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties; chiseling; crop rotation; deep tillage; dryland farming; Earthworm; earthworms; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Infiltration; no-tillage; Oregon; Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils; Pisum sativum; population density; Soil science; spring; Tillage; Triticum aestivum; winter wheat; Zoology (interactions between soil fauna and agricultural or forest soils); Oregon; United States; North America; America; Earthworm; Tillage; Infiltration; Monocotyledones; Rainfed agriculture; Minimum tillage; Oligochaeta; Cereal crop; Plowing; Soil fauna; Gramineae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Water infiltration; Cultural practice; Soil tillage; Fauna; Cropping system; Mollisols; Annelida; Grain legume; Silt loam soil; Leguminosae; Macrofauna; Pisum sativum; Crop rotation; Spermatophyta; Aporrectodea trapezoides; Invertebrata; Mediterranean climate; Triticum aestivum
• ISSN: 0929-1393; 1873-0272
• DOI: 10.1016/S0929-1393(01)00145-7

Dryland farming in the Mediterranean climate of the Pacific Northwest, USA supports extremely low earthworm populations under conventional tillage. Increases in earthworm populations are being observed in fields under no-till cropping systems. A 30+ year experiment with four tillage levels in a pea ( Pisum sativum L.)-winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) rotation was evaluated for earthworm populations and ponded infiltration rates. Where tillage has been limited to 2.5 cm depth, Apporectodea trapezoides (Duges) mean population was 25 m −2. Plots subject to tillage by plow (25 cm depth) or chisel (35 cm depth) averaged less than 4 earthworms m −2. The shallow tillage treatment also had the highest average infiltration rate of 70 mm h −1 compared to 36 for chisel, 27 for spring plow, and 19 mm h −1 for fall plow treatments. The highly variable nature of earthworm counts and infiltration measurements prevented conclusive correlation between the two, but increases in both can be attributed to minimum tillage.