Horizontal Distribution of an Earthworm Community at El Molar, Madrid (Spain)

The earthworm community in El Molar (Madrid) is studied, and its distribution patterns and relation with some soil factors are described by using geostatistic and multivariate tools. Six species were found, Hormogaster elisae, Allolobophora rosea and Allolobophora caliginosa being the three most abu...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Hernández Gordo, Patricia, Gutiérrez López, Mónica, Ramajo Matesanz, Marta, Trigo Aza, María Dolores, Díaz Cosín, Darío J.
Format: article
Publication Date:2003
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repository:Docta Complutense
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/57925
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/57925
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Earthworms
Horizontal distribution
Soil factors
Aggregation
Invertebrados
Zoología
2401.17 Invertebrados
2401 Biología Animal (Zoología)
Description
Summary:The earthworm community in El Molar (Madrid) is studied, and its distribution patterns and relation with some soil factors are described by using geostatistic and multivariate tools. Six species were found, Hormogaster elisae, Allolobophora rosea and Allolobophora caliginosa being the three most abundant ones. These speciesexhibited a clumped distribution. The most dominant species, H. elisae, was distributed in patches of an average size of 45m in spring and more than 100m inautumn. A. rosea was aggregated in patches of an average size of 22m and A. caliginosa formed patches of an average size of 38 m. There seemed to be a positive correlation between the abundance of H. elisae and the percentage of total and coarse sands, as well as a negative correlation with clay, nitrogen, carbon and coarse loams contents, opposite to what was observed for A. rosea.