Earthworms are regarded as the farmer's friend, earth's outstanding soil processor, recycler, composter and "Cinderella of organic farming". Their gut is the home of hundreds and thousands of bacteria as well as an excellent 'bioreactor'. There remains a black box in the possession of bacteria, their unique properties and activities and unveiling the truth can solve the riddle of soil fertility, vermicast/compost's role, bioremediation and others.
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Earthworms promises to provide cheaper solutions to several social, economic and environmental problems plaguing the human society. Earthworms can safely manage all municipal and industrial organic wastes including sewage sludge and divert them from ending up in the landfills. Their body work as a ‘biofilter’ and they can ‘purify’ and also ‘disinfect’ and ‘detoxify’ municipal and several industrial wastewater. They reduce the BOD & COD loads and the TDSS of wastewater significantly. They can even remove the EDCs (endocrine disrupting chemicals) from sewage which is not removed by the conventional sewage treatments plants. Earthworms can bio-accumulate and bio-transform many chemical contaminants including heavy metals and organic pollutants in soil and clean-up the contaminated lands for re-development. Earthworms restore & improve soil fertility by their secretions (growth hormones) and excreta (vermicast with beneficial soil microbes) & boost ‘crop productivity’.It is well established that earthworms play important roles in the terrestrial ecosystem. Some of these roles include soil aeration , humus formation and organic matter recycling.
When I was studying the energetic earthworm I learned about the calciferous glands it possesses. Earthworms are often much reduced in acid soils. I believe that calcium in the earthworm is key to detoxifying needed for the earthworm to survive. The role of calcium will reduce the solubility and toxicity of aluminum manganese and iron. In addition the role of calcium stabilizes soil structure making the aggregation of the casting a stabilized aggregation. The look of wormed soils is characteristic and the earthworm seems to be the ideal organism for producing the right physical and chemical structure for soil which stimulates the plant growth. Since we like the earth worm depend on this plant growth we are in symbiotic relationship when we make a friendly earthworm environment. For a composter the worm can do the heavy work of tilling soil. The single earthworm can produce 10 kg of casting from their yearly activity. This productivity is transformation and all students need to review Darwin's key observation which never grow old. We are not kidding when,we say an answer to global warming is global worming. Good worming everybody it is much needed.
Dear researcher friends,
Please focus your response on the heart of the matter, not its skin. Please put your observations, views, news, valuable inputs and relevant papers regarding the role of resident bacteria of earthworm's gut in environmental management with particular reference to heavy metal remediation and nutrient (C,N & P) management in soil. One pointer may be the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) (produced by the enteric bateria) which have potential roles to play in the said cases. Please try to give some insight so that gut resident bacteria's role could be unveiled and we could trace the 'black box', solve the riddle of soil fertility, and bioremediation accounting due weight age (credit) rendered by the bacteria and earthworm.
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