The effects of direct drilling and minimal cultivation on earthworm populations

Abstract

This study assessed earthworm populations under continuous cereal crops that were deep ploughed, chisel ploughed, or direct drilled. There were much larger populations of deep burrowing earthworm populations in the direct drilled plots - 17.5 to 37.3 times more than in the deep ploughed plots. The difference in shallow burrowing earthworms between the tillage treatments was much less, not exceeding a 3.4 fold increase in direct drilled over deep ploughed.