Earthworms - Creating A Healthy Environment
by John Yazo
Earthworms greatly benefit the natural environment, dramatically alter the structure of soil, and are a good indicator that a soil quality is healthy. They are also extremely sensitive to environmental pollutants, and unfortunately due to pollution caused from toxins in chemical herbicides and pesticides earthworms can become eliminated from your garden soil.
Earthworms in an organic garden will improve the soils structure by, enhancing porosity, nutrient dynamics, and plant growth. Earthworms are not an essential part of all healthy soil systems, but their presence are normally a good indicator that a soil is healthy. They do perform many beneficial functions in the environment, and protecting their habitat is very important.
Although earthworms get their nutrition from microorganisms that live on the surface of decomposing organic material, (algae, fungi, and bacteria), there are many more microorganisms in their castings than they consume. As what they consume passes through an earthworms intestines, it is broken down further and inoculated with microorganisms.
This process makes easier the cycling of nutrients from decomposing organic materials and the conversion of nutrients to a form ready to be taken up by plants. What a worm eats largely depends on where they live. Worms that live close to the earths surface eat a variety of organic materials, like dead grass and leaves that fall to the ground. Worms that live deeper under the ground surface have a diet that is primarily dirt. In both cases they consume a variety of algae, fungi and bacteria, just the group that lives close to the surface get them from decaying materials, and the group that lives deeper in the ground consume algae, fungi and bacteria that are in dirt.Once a worms diet has been met, either through organic material or mineral particles, they excrete waste in the form of casts. These castings are a type of soil aggregate, and are very beneficial to plant life.
Earthworms provide many benefits to a soils structure. They enhance the porosity of the soil as they travel through it. These voids that they leave behind in the soil improve the infiltration of both air and water, along with improving drainage. As an earthworm breaks down and pulls organic material deeper into the soil, it will also improve a soils water-holding captivity. By their natural method of tilling, earthworms help to maintain soil. Gardening by organic methods, and keeping a needed supply of organic matter in your garden soil will create a healthy environment for earthworms to survive.
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