Exotic Earthworm Species Dominant in Soils on Sugarcane Estates in the Eshowe Area of the North Coast of Kwazulu-natal

The effects of land management including sugarcane, horticultural crops (citrus, avocado and banana), forestry (gum, wattle and pine), kikuyu pasture, native forest and native grassland on the size and composition of the earthworm community on sugarcane estates in northern KwaZulu-Natal was investigated. Earthworm numbers followed the order: burnt sugarcane < trashed sugarcane = grassveld = gum forest = pine forest = wattle forest = avocado orchard < citrus orchard < banana plantation < native forest < kikuyu pasture. The pattern of change in organic C, and particularly microbial biomass C, with landuse showed broadly similar trends to those of earthworm numbers. This demonstrates that the C input to the soil and the amount of labile, metabolizable C present are the major determining factors to the size of both the soil microbial and earthworm communities.