Earthworms regulate plant productivity and the efficacy of soil fertility amendments in acid soils of the Colombian Llanos

Abstract

Earthworms regulate plant productivity and the efficacy of soil fertility amendments in acid soils of the Colombian LlanosThe International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.

Earthworms contribute significantly to global food production

“…The sustainable management of soils and overall soil health represents a key element in agroecological intensification efforts, as soil biological communities offer great potential to support food production and a range of other ecosystem services 3 . Earthworms, in particular, are important ecosystem engineers that influence plant growth via impacts on soil structure, water capture, organic matter cycling, and nutrient availability 4 , 5 . Earthworms have also been shown to facilitate the production of plant growth-promoting hormones and trigger effective crop immune responses to common soil pathogens 6 .…”

Growing maize while biological remediating a multiple metal-contaminated soil: a promising solution with the hyperaccumulator plant Sedum alfredii and the earthworm Amynthas morrisi

“…They not only influence soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient release, and plant growth (Lavelle and Spain, 2001;Lavelle et al, 2020), but also play a vital role in the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements (Sizmur and Richardson, 2020). Due to their important role in numerous ecological functions, earthworms have been used in ecological restoration of soils degraded by intensive tillage or excessive agrochemical inputs such as chemical fertilizers (Bedano et al, 2019;Fonte et al, 2018;Noguera et al, 2010). However, there is limited research on the potential of earthworms in bioremediation of soils contaminated by potentially toxic elements such as metal(loid)s (Zhang et al, 2020;Sizmur and Richardson, 2020).…”