Variations in meadow associations of earthworms caused by the influence of nitrogen fertilizers and liquid-manure irrigation

Abstract

The decomposition of the produced plant mass which becomes again a source of plant nutrition represents an important part of the circulation of substances in ecosystem characteristics. Of the agrobiocoenoses it is the intervention of man just into this phase of the natural metabolism of the total system. Man harvests the crop and translocates it to another system so that no decomposition and natural renovation of soil fertility can occur here. Uptaken substances are then replaced mostly by mineral manures and these influence the life of soil organism providing a single phase of decomposition together with another chemical intervention. Although it is obious that the present intensive agriculture depends, in the domain of nutrition and plant protection, first on chemical means we must focus our attention on the effects of agrotechniques on the living comporients of the soil which remain a natural renewer of its fertility