Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 22, Issue 5, October 2012, Pages 726-735
Pedosphere

Effects of Epigeic Earthworms on Decomposition of Wheat Straw and Nutrient Cycling in Agricultural Soils in a Reclaimed Salinity Area: A Microcosm Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(12)60058-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Earthworms, one of the most important macroinvertebrates in terrestrial ecosystems of temperate zones, exert important influences on soil functions. A laboratory microcosm study was conducted to evaluate the influence of the earthworm Eisenia fetida on wheat straw decomposition and nutrient cycling in an agricultural soil in a reclaimed salinity area of the North China Plain. Each microcosm was simulated by thoroughly mixing wheat straw into the soil and incubated for 120 d with earthworms added at 3 different densities as treatments: control with no earthworms, regular density (RD) with two earthworms, and increased density (ID) with six earthworms. The results showed that there was no depletion of carbon and nitrogen pools in the presence of the earthworms. Basal soil respiration rates and metabolic quotient increased with the increase in earthworm density during the initial and middle part of the incubation period. In contrast, concentrations of microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass quotient decreased in the presence of earthworms. Earthworm activity stimulated the transfer of microbial biomass carbon to dissolved organic carbon and could lead to a smaller, but more metabolically active microbial biomass. Concentrations of inorganic nitrogen and NO3-N increased significantly with the increase in earthworm density at the end of the incubation (P < 0.05), resulting in a large pool of inorganic nitrogen available for plant uptake. Cumulative net nitrogen mineralization rates were three times higher in the ID treatment than the RD treatment.

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    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31070454) and the Program for Key Discipline of Ecology of Being City, China (No. XK10019440).

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