Using the ecosystem engineer concept to test the functional effects of a decrease in earthworm abundance due to an historic metal pollution gradient

Capowiez, Yvan; Lévèque, Thibaut; Pelosi, Céline; Capowiez, Line; Mazzia, Christophe; Schreck, Eva; Dumat, Camille

doi:10.1016/j.apsoil.2020.103816

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Since ET is the combination of soil evaporation and plant transpiration, the decrease in ET with EW_BM in intercrop periods with minimal vegetation suggests that the effect mainly resulted from reduced evaporation from the topsoil. This reduction is likely due to the faster infiltration of water into the deeper soil layers, consistent with previous studies 41 . The presence of anecic earthworms in the mustard treatment also resulted in a 12% decrease in WUE, while the presence of endogeic earthworms led to a 28% increase during intercrop_2.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a three-crop rotation system

Forey,

Sauze,

Piel

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Earthworms are known to stimulate soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the majority of previous studies have used simplified model systems or lacked continuous high-frequency measurements. To address this, we conducted a 2-year study using large lysimeters (5 m2 area and 1.5 m soil depth) in an ecotron facility, continuously measuring ecosystem-level CO2, N2O, and H2O fluxes. We investigated the impact of endogeic and anecic earthworms on GHG emissions and ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) in a simulated agricultural setting. Although we observed transient stimulations of carbon fluxes in the presence of earthworms, cumulative fluxes over the study indicated no significant increase in CO2 emissions. Endogeic earthworms reduced N2O emissions during the wheat culture (− 44.6%), but this effect was not sustained throughout the experiment. No consistent effects on ecosystem evapotranspiration or WUE were found. Our study suggests that earthworms do not significantly contribute to GHG emissions over a two-year period in experimental conditions that mimic an agricultural setting. These findings highlight the need for realistic experiments and continuous GHG measurements.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a three-crop rotation system

Forey,

Sauze,

Piel

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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show abstract

“…Since ET is the combination of soil evaporation and plant transpiration, the decrease in ET with EW_BM in intercrop periods with minimal vegetation suggests that the effect mainly resulted from reduced evaporation from the topsoil. This reduction is likely due to the faster in ltration of water into the deeper soil layers, consistent with previous studies 43 . The presence of anecic earthworms in the mustard treatment also resulted in a 12% decrease in WUE, while the presence of endogeic earthworms led to a 28% increase during intercrop_2.…”

Section: Earthworm Effects On H 2 O Uxes (Et Wue)supporting

confidence: 92%

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a realistic three-crop rotation system

Forey¹,

Sauze²,

Piel

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Earthworms are known to stimulate soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but previous studies have used simplified models or had limited measurements. To address this, we conducted a two-year study using large lysimeters in an ecotron facility, continuously measuring ecosystem-level CO2, N2O, and H2O fluxes. We investigated the impact of endogeic and anecic earthworms on GHG emissions and ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) in an agricultural setting. Although we observed transient stimulations of carbon fluxes in the presence of earthworms, cumulative fluxes over the study indicated no significant increase in CO2 emissions. Endogeic earthworms marginally reduced N2O emissions during the wheat culture (-44.6%), but this effect was not sustained throughout the experiment. No consistent effects on ecosystem evapotranspiration or WUE were found. Our study suggests that earthworms do not significantly contribute to GHG emissions over a two-year period in experimental conditions that mimic an agricultural setting. These findings highlight the need for realistic experiments enabling continuous GHG measurements.

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“…Earthworms may be dependable signs of soil quality, where the abundance of earthworms and the structure of the community directly reflect the state of pollution in the fields [44]. On the only hand, infected soil influences earthworm feeding and burrowing [45]. is is newly discovered that increasing soil concentrations significantly inhibits earthworm digging activities, with a significantly prolonged avoidance response (from ∼10% to >80%) [46].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Effect of Mercury Salt on the Presence of Annelida (Lumbricus terrestris) in Soil and the Histological Changes on the Skin Tissue

Salman

Khudhair

AL-ANI

et al. 2022

Applied and Environmental Soil Science

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The earthworm is the most beneficial organism for assessing metallic contamination due to the fact that critical high-quality correlations have been determined between earthworm steel concentrations and soil cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, and mercury concentrations. The mercury compounds are very poisonous for most organisms. Here, we investigated the ability of earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) to HgCl2 (below laboratory conditions). A study of the effect of five different salt concentrations of mercury chloride (HgCl2) 1 ppm, 5 ppm, 10 ppm, 50 ppm, and 100 ppm was studied on worm survival and calculation of the concentration required to destroy half the number of worms (LC50). The results showed that there is an inverse relationship between these salt concentrations and the time required to perish 100% of worms. It was found that the concentration of 100 ppm is the lethal concentration of half the number (LC50) of the earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris). The effects of the salt concentrations used confirmed their effect on the experimental worm weights as well, so the concentration of 50 ppm was the most influential on earthworm weights of the type of Lumbricus terrestris, as it caused a reduction 12% of worm weights with a significant difference, while the concentrations 1 ppm and 100 ppm were the least effective, as they caused the worms to decrease by only (5%), while the remaining two concentrations 5 ppm and 10 ppm caused their effect to decrease by 7% only. Thus, it can be concluded that lower worm weights have nothing to do with the lethal concentrations of the heavy metal salt (HgCl2). The histological study also showed that low concentrations of mercury chloride salt have less effect on earthworms’ skin tissue compared to higher concentrations.

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Using the ecosystem engineer concept to test the functional effects of a decrease in earthworm abundance due to an historic metal pollution gradient

Cited by 14 publications

References 63 publications

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a three-crop rotation system

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a three-crop rotation system

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and N2O) in an ecotron experiment simulating a realistic three-crop rotation system

Study of the Effect of Mercury Salt on the Presence of Annelida (Lumbricus terrestris) in Soil and the Histological Changes on the Skin Tissue

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