Puricare Industrial Enterprises: EARTHWORMS AND WATER QUALITY - Earthworms improve water infiltration and water holding capacity because their shredding, mixing, and defecating enhances soil structure. In addition, burrows provide quick entry for water into and through soil.

Earthworms
and Water
Quality

Earthworms improve water infiltration and water holding capacity because their shredding, mixing, and defecating enhances soil structure.

In addition, burrows provide quick entry for water into and through soil. High infiltration rates help prevent pollution by minimizing runoff, erosion, and chemical transport to surface waters.

There is concern that burrows may increase the transport of pollutants, such as nitrates or pesticides, into groundwater.

However, the movement of potential pollutants through soil is not a straightforward process and it is not clear when earthworm activity will or will not have a negative impact on groundwater quality.

Whether pollutants reach groundwater depends on a number of factors, including the location of pollutants on the surface or within soil, the quantity and intensity of rain, how well water moves into and through other parts of the soil, and characteristics of the burrows.

The horizontal burrows of endogeic earthworms such as Aporrectodea tuberculata, which are common in Midwestern fields) do not transport water and solutes as deeply as the vertical burrows of night crawlers (L. terrestris) and other anecic species.

Even vertical burrows, however, are not direct channels for water movement. They have bends and turns and are lined with organic matter that adsorbs many potential pollutants from the water.

Although there is much more to learn about how earthworms affect water movement through soil, they

clearly help minimize pollution of surface waters by improving infiltration rates and decreasing runoff.

nrcs.usda.gov

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