Interactive effects of functionally different earthworm species on aggregation and incorporation and decomposition of newly added residue carbon

Bossuyt, Heleen; Six, Johan; Hendrix, Paul F.

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2005.01.005

Cited by 110 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…anecic, epigeic and endogeic), and soil physical properties result therefore from a complex equilibrium. The effects of functionally different earthworm species on soil aggregation have been studied and the results highlighted that different earthworm species differently affected the incorporation of fresh organic matter and soil stability, and that interactive effects between different earthworm species must be considered (Bossuyt et al, 2006). In our experiment, one species only was used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of roots, mycorrhizas and earthworms on soil physical properties as assessed by shrinkage analysis

Milleret

Bayon

Lamy

et al. 2009

Journal of Hydrology

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Keywords: Shrinkage analysis (ShC) Soil porosity Earthworms Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) Plant root Soil structure s u m m a r y Soil biota such as earthworms, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant roots are known to play a major role in engineering the belowground part of the terrestrial ecosystems, thus strongly influencing the water budget and quality on earth. However, the effect of soil organisms and their interactions on the numerous soil physical properties to be considered are still poorly understood. Shrinkage analysis allows quantifying a large spectrum of soil properties in a single experiment, with small standard errors. The objectives of the present study were, therefore, to assess the ability of the method to quantify changes in soil properties as induced by single or combined effects of leek roots (Allium porrum), AMF (Glomus intraradices) and earthworms (Allolobophora chlorotica). The study was performed on homogenised soil microcosms and the experiments lasted 35 weeks. The volume of the root network and the external fungal hyphae was measured at the end, and undisturbed soil cores were collected. Shrinkage analysis allowed calculating the changes in soil hydro-structural stability, soil plasma and structural pore volumes, soil bulk density and plant available water, and structural pore size distributions. Data analysis revealed different impacts of the experimented soil biota on the soil physical properties. At any water content, the presence of A. chlorotica resulted in a decrease of the specific bulk volume and the hydrostructural stability around 25%, and in a significant increase in the bulk soil density. These changes went with a decrease of the structural pore volumes at any pore size, a disappearing of the thinnest structural pores, a decrease in plant available water, and a hardening of the plasma. On the contrary, leek roots decreased the bulk soil density up to 1.23 g cm À3 despite an initial bulk density of 1.15 g cm À3 . This increase in volume was accompanied with a enhanced hydro-structural stability, a larger structural pore volume at any pore size, smaller structural pore radii and an increase in plant available water. Interestingly, a synergistic effect of leek roots and AMF in the absence of the earthworms was highlighted, and this synergistic effect was not observed in presence of earthworms. The structural pore volume generated by root and AMF growth was several orders of magnitude larger than the volume of the organisms. Root exudates as well as other AMF secretion have served as carbon source for bacteria that in turn would enhance soil aggregation and porosity, thus supporting the idea of a self-organization of the soilplant-microbe complex previously described.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of roots, mycorrhizas and earthworms on soil physical properties as assessed by shrinkage analysis

Milleret

Bayon

Lamy

et al. 2009

Journal of Hydrology

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“…Mounds and burrows are obvious signs of physical heterogeneity created by ecosystem engineers (Meysmann et al, 2006;Wilkinson et al, 2009;Sanders et al, 2014). These structures significantly affect microorganisms and plants (Chauvel et al, 1999;Frelich et al, 2006) and associated soil properties such as aggregate stability (Bossuyt et al, 2005(Bossuyt et al, , 2006 and hydraulic properties (Bottinelli et al, 2015;Andriuzzi et al, 2015). This has consequences for the sorption and degradation (Edwards et al, 1992;Bolduan and Zehe, 2006) and for C emissions Lopes de Gerenyu et al, 2015).…”

Section: Rootsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil fauna: key to new carbon models

Filser

Faber

Tiunov

et al. 2016

SOIL

179

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Abstract. Soil organic matter (SOM) is key to maintaining soil fertility, mitigating climate change, combatting land degradation, and conserving above-and below-ground biodiversity and associated soil processes and ecosystem services. In order to derive management options for maintaining these essential services provided by soils, policy makers depend on robust, predictive models identifying key drivers of SOM dynamics. Existing SOM models and suggested guidelines for future SOM modelling are defined mostly in terms of plant residue quality and input and microbial decomposition, overlooking the significant regulation provided by soil fauna. The fauna controls almost any aspect of organic matter turnover, foremost by regulating the activity and functional composition of soil microorganisms and their physical-chemical connectivity with soil organic matter. We demonstrate a very strong impact of soil animals on carbon turnover, increasing or decreasing it by several dozen percent, sometimes even turning C sinks into C sources or vice versa. This is demonstrated not only for earthworms and other larger invertebrates but also for smaller fauna such as Collembola. We suggest that inclusion of soil animal activities (plant residue consumption and bioturbation altering the formation, depth, hydraulic properties and physical heterogeneity of soils) can fundamentally affect the predictive outcome of SOM models. Understanding direct and indirect impacts of soil fauna on nutrient availability, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions and plant growth is key to the understanding of SOM dynamics in the context of global carbon cycling models. We argue that explicit consideration of soil fauna is essential to make realistic modelling predictions on SOM dynamics and to detect expected non-linear responses of SOM dynamics to global change. WePublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 566 J. Filser et al.: Soil fauna: key to new carbon models present a decision framework, to be further developed through the activities of KEYSOM, a European COST Action, for when mechanistic SOM models include soil fauna. The research activities of KEYSOM, such as field experiments and literature reviews, together with dialogue between empiricists and modellers, will inform how this is to be done.

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“…The changing patterns of 15 N abundance suggest that earthworms have limited capacity to enhance the humification (and, thus, the associated mineralization) of highly humified aggregate fractions. As a result, earthworms disrupted the C distribution in aggregates and stored more C in the highly stable macroaggregate fraction 24 . Moreover, A. agrestis only induced slightly higher abundances of 15 N in FPOM than L. rubellus did at a marginally significant level (P ¼ 0.062), but induced significantly lower TOC content in aggregates of 250-2,000 mm (P ¼ 0.030) and much higher TOC content in macroaggregates of 42,000 mm (P ¼ 0.001) than L. rubellus.…”

Section: -30 CM (Refsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earthworms facilitate carbon sequestration through unequal amplification of carbon stabilization compared with mineralization

et al. 2013

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A recent review concluded that earthworm presence increases CO 2 emissions by 33% but does not affect soil organic carbon stocks. However, the findings are controversial and raise new questions. Here we hypothesize that neither an increase in CO 2 emission nor in stabilized carbon would entirely reflect the earthworms' contribution to net carbon sequestration. We show how two widespread earthworm invaders affect net carbon sequestration through impacts on the balance of carbon mineralization and carbon stabilization. Earthworms accelerate carbon activation and induce unequal amplification of carbon stabilization compared with carbon mineralization, which generates an earthworm-mediated 'carbon trap'. We introduce the new concept of sequestration quotient to quantify the unequal processes. The patterns of CO 2 emission and net carbon sequestration are predictable by comparing sequestration quotient values between treatments with and without earthworms. This study clarifies an ecological mechanism by which earthworms may regulate the terrestrial carbon sink.

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Interactive effects of functionally different earthworm species on aggregation and incorporation and decomposition of newly added residue carbon

Cited by 110 publications

References 29 publications

Impact of roots, mycorrhizas and earthworms on soil physical properties as assessed by shrinkage analysis

Impact of roots, mycorrhizas and earthworms on soil physical properties as assessed by shrinkage analysis

Soil fauna: key to new carbon models

Earthworms facilitate carbon sequestration through unequal amplification of carbon stabilization compared with mineralization

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