Comparisons of earthworm community structure between different ecotypes

Abstract

The Philippines is considered to be a biodiversity ``hotspot{''} of high species richness and endemism but the increased in human population and the destruction of the environment triggered the decline of biodiversity. Habitat complexity and the specialized niches available to animals are lost due to deforestation and anthropogenic activities. As good bioindicators and soil ecosystem engineers, earthworms play an important role for the decomposition, remediation of the soil in the form of their casts and food source for the other animals. This study was conducted to determine the biodiversity of earthworms from 3 different ecotypes namely forest, riverbank, and agricultural area. To determine on to what genus they belong, there were a total of 64 morphological characters that were used. There are a total of 4 genera that were identified from the 3 families namely, Eudrilidae, Megascolecidae, and Glossoscolecidae. The 4 genus were namely, Eudrilus eugeniae, P. corethrurus, and 2 pheretima sp. This study shows that these species were actually invasive that even in the forest they are still present. But results show the forest has the most number of species compared to the other ecotypes like river and agricultural area. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by IASE.