Browsing by Author "Edema, M.O."

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Distribution of bacteria and fungi in the earthworm Libyodrillus violaceous (Annelida: Oligochaeta), a native earthworm from Nigeria.
(University of Costa Rica, 2006) Idowu, A.B.; Edema, M.O.; Adeyi, A.O.
Earthworms are soil invertebrates that play a key role in recycling organic matter in soils. In Nigeria, earthworms include Libyodrillus violaceous. Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial counts, as well as fungal counts of viable microorganisms in soils and gut sections, were made on twenty L. violaceous collected from different sites on the campus of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. The samples were collected between April and November, 2002. Numbers of microorganisms were higher in castings and gut sections than in uningested soil samples. The guts and their contents also had higher moisture and total nitrogen contents than the un-ingested soils. Bacteria and fungi isolated from the samples were identified by standard microbiological procedures on the bases of their morphological and biochemical characteristics. Isolated bacteria were identified as Staphylococcus, Bacillus spp., seudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus mutans, Clostridium, Spirocheata spp.,Azotobacter spp., Micrococcus lylae, Acinetobacter spp., Halobacterium for bacteria. Yeast isolates were identified as Candida spp., Zygosaccharomyces spp., Pichia spp., and Saccharomyces spp while molds were identified as, Aspergillus spp., Pytium spp., Penicillium spp., Fusarium spp and Rhizopus spp. Of the five locations examined, the refuse dump area had the highest numbers of both aerobic and anaerobic organisms, followed by the arboretum while the cultivated land area recorded the lowest counts. The higher numbers of microorganisms observed in the gut sections and casts of the earthworms examined in this work reinforce the general concept that the gut and casts of earthworms show higher microbial diversity and activity than the surrounding soil. Rev. Biol. Trop. 54(1): 49-58. Epub 2006 Mar 31.
Gut Microflora and Microfauna of Earthworm Species in the Soils of the Research Farms of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria
(Taylor & Francis, 2008) Idowu, A.B.; Edema, M.O.; Adeyi, A.O.
The present study investigated the microbial biomass (microflora and fauna) present in soil samples, gut sections and casts of earthworms collected from research farm areas on the campus of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Keffia proxipora, Libyodrilus violacaeus and Hippoporera nigereae were the earthworm species identified from the soil samples. Isolated microflora included bacteria, yeasts and moulds while microfauna identified were protozoa and nematodes. For all samples of soil, casts and earthworms, the differences observed in counts of microflora and microfauna were significant at a level of p < 0.05. Casts stored for 2 weeks had higher pH and bacterial counts than those obtained from fresh castings. However, the pH values and nitrogen contents of both the fresh and stored casts were significantly higher than those for un-ingested soil samples. Among the earthworms identified, Libyodrillus violacaeus recorded the highest values of microflora and microfauna counts, significantly higher than values obtained for the other earthworm species. The hind gut of Libyodrillus violacaeus also had the highest bacterial, protozoal and yeast counts as well as total viable counts of microflora. Both micro-flora and fauna were found to increase in numbers during gut passage in all worms collected except for nematodes which were observed to reduce significantly in numbers during gut passage, with total disappearance in the mid and hind gut sections of some earthworm species.