Journal of Applied Biosciences (J. Appl. Biosci.) [ISSN 1997 - 5902]
Volume 42: 2854 - 2858. Published June 14, 2011.
Plant community influences on earthworms in Lamto savannahs (Côte d’Ivoire)
1Ehouman N’guetta Moïse*12, Tiho Seydou12, Yéo Kolo12, Dagnogo Mamadou2
1,2 Université Abobo Adjamé & station d’écologie de Lamto.
2 UFR des sciences de la nature, Université d’Abobo – Adjamé, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire.
*12 corresponding author e-mail: ehmoise@yahoo.fr
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To determine the variation of plant communities (above ground biodiversity) and earthworm community structure (below ground biodiversity) in three vegetations types (grassy savannah, woody savannah and forest).
Methodology and results: The experiment waswas conducted in Lamto savannahs (Côte d’Ivoire) in both the rainy and dry season. This experiment consisted of sampling earthworms and plants and measuring environmental parameters in a regular grid (50 m x 50 m) in three vegetation types (forest, woody savannah and grassy savannah). In each vegetation type 100 monoliths of soil were dug out (50 cm x 50 cm x 30 cm). The species of the plants harvested in each unit of 5 m x 5 m were counted and identified. Ordination method such as correspondence analysis CA and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to establish relation between earthworms and plants families. CCA showed that, the variance accounted for plants families was nearly half of total variance extracted by CA in forest and woody savannah data. The remaining variance was due to environmental parameters and the undetermined parameters.
Conclusions and application of findings: Earthworms species were highly correlated to plants in the different environment types. However in grassy savannah, the variance accounted for plants families was a weak portion. Moreover the multiple correlations between the axes and plants were fairly weak. This interaction between earthworm species and plants can be applied in the agro-ecosystem to improve soil fertility. Because the decomposition of plants litters by earthworms is involved in the mineralization of soil organic matter.
Keywords: canonical correspondence analysis, correspondence analysis, earthworms, Lamto, plants, savannahs
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