The influence of abiotic factors and organic carbon pools of soil on the distribution and diversity indices of earthworms under different land-use systems in north western Himalaya, India.

Earthworms play an important role in soil processes and ecosystem services. Soil fauna responds quickly to any alteration in the soil environment induced by land-use changes. Earthworm distribution is usually diverse, and their populations fluctuate in relation to different soil variables and land use patterns of the soil. However, little is known about the impact of soil organic carbon pools (abiotic factors) and land-use changes on earthworm communities in north western Himalaya. This study examined distribution and diversity indices of earthworms and their relation to physico-chemical properties of soil. Earthworms were sampled from three different land-use systems (mixed forest, agricultural land and tea garden) in every season (summer, rainy and winter) from two different depths (0–15 and 15–30 cm) from April 2019 to March 2021. We further identified earthworms and investigated physico-chemical properties of soil along with different carbon pools. A total of 13 earthworm species belonging to three families (Megascolecidae, Lumbricidae, Octochaetidae) were identified, out of which Amynthas corticis (Kinberg, 1867) was the most abundant species and found in all land-use systems. Mixed forest showed the highest H index, Margalef index and also have good nutrient content. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed a significant positive impact of abiotic factors on the distribution of earthworms. Our results indicate that earthworm diversity indices are strongly and positively correlated with the organic carbon pools of soil, which might become the potential factor in influencing the earthworm community pattern in north western Himalaya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]