IMPACT OF HABITAT DEGRADATION ON BIODIVERSITY OF EARTHWORM IN RAEBARELI DISTRICT

Abstract

The land-use pattern in the Raebareli district exhibits a gradient of increasing human-caused land-use intensification. Deforestation for agriculture causes agroecosystems to be left fallow in order to recover vegetation and enhance soil fertility. Due to extensive grazing pressure, a lack of plant cover, and soil erosion that is accelerated by a higher pH value brought on by sodicity, fallows have significantly degraded ecosystems. Using biological restoration techniques, agroecosystems have transitioned from being externally regulated to becoming an internally managed, sustainable ecosystem. Eutyphoeus nicholsoni, Eutyphoeus orientalis, and Metaphire anomala in the forest, successfully surviving there. Three species were still present in the mechanized agroecosystem; Eutyphoeus waltoni invaded and replaced Eutyphoeus orientalis due to the alteration in land use pattern from forest to agroecosystem. The fallow contained Eutyphoeus incommodus and Eutyphoeus nicholsoni. Earthworms could not thrive in the soil there because of the high pH and low nutrient value of the sodic land earthworm. As a result of the conversion of land from a forest to an agroecosystem, endemic species predominated over foreign species, and this pattern continued in fallows and reclaimed agroecosystems. Endogeic species dominated in the forest, but a change in land use caused a reduction in their population in agriculture, which allowed anacic species to take their position in the fallow. Simpson's diversity index was higher in the less disturbed reclaimed agroecosystem, whereas the earthworm diversity index declined as farming intensified.