Projects per year
Abstract
By living in permanent burrows and incorporating organic detritus from the soil surface, anecic earthworms contribute to soil heterogeneity, but their impact is still under-studied in natural field conditions. We investigated the effects of the anecic earthworm Lumbricus centralis on fresh carbon (C) incorporation, soil organic matter composition, protists, and nematodes of a Cambisol under grassland. We used plant material labelled with stable isotope tracers to detect fresh C input around earthworm-occupied burrows or around burrows from which the earthworm had been removed. After 50 days, we sampled soil (0--10 cm depth) in concentric layers around the burrows, distinguishing between drilosphere (0--8 mm) and bulk soil (50--75 mm). L. centralis effectively incorporated fresh C into the drilosphere, and this shifted soil organic matter amount and chemistry: total soil sugar content was increased compared to unoccupied drilosphere and bulk soil, and the contribution of plant-derived sugars to soil organic matter was enhanced. Earthworms also shifted the spatial distribution of soil C towards the drilosphere. The total abundance of protists and nematodes was only slightly higher in earthworm-occupied drilosphere, but strong positive effects were found for some protist clades (e.g. Stenamoeba spp.). Additional data for the co-occurring anecic earthworm species Aporrectodea longa showed that it incorporated fresh C less than L. centralis, suggesting that the two species may have different effects on soil C distribution and organic matter quality.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 91-100 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Biology and Fertility of Soils |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- international
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Dive into the research topics of 'Organic matter composition and the protist and nematode communities around anecic earthworm burrows'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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EcoFinders: EU - FP7 Ecological Function and Biodiversity Indicators in European Soils
Morrien, E. & van der Putten, W. H.
01/07/2011 → 30/09/2019
Project: Research
Datasets
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Data from: Organic matter composition and the protist and nematode communities around anecic earthworm burrows
Andriuzzi, W. S. (Creator), Ngo, P. (Creator) & Geisen, S. (Creator), DataverseNL, 05 Jun 2016
http://hdl.handle.net/10411/20809
Dataset