Short-term effects of land-use on earthworm communities and soil physico-chemical properties (Belgium)

Earthworms are known to play integral roles in soils, and are often referred to as vital soil and ecosystem engineers. They have the ability to influence a wide range of chemical, physical, and biological properties of soil environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how earthworm communities are impacted by tillage practices and exportation of crop residues. In the present study, earthworm and soil samples were collected from wheat cultivated fields in Gembloux, Belgium under four different agricultural practices: (1) conventional tillage with crop residues incorporated into the soi... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Lemtiri, Aboulkacem
Alabi, Taofic
Cluzeau, Daniel
Francis, Frédéric
Colinet, Gilles
Dokumenttyp: conference paper not in proceedings
Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
Schlagwörter: Conventional tillage / Reduced tillage / Crop residue management / Earthworm ecological groups / Soil physico-chemical properties / Soil compaction / Soil nutrient dynamics / Life sciences / Agriculture & agronomy / Sciences du vivant / Agriculture & agronomie
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29366300
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/258646

Earthworms are known to play integral roles in soils, and are often referred to as vital soil and ecosystem engineers. They have the ability to influence a wide range of chemical, physical, and biological properties of soil environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how earthworm communities are impacted by tillage practices and exportation of crop residues. In the present study, earthworm and soil samples were collected from wheat cultivated fields in Gembloux, Belgium under four different agricultural practices: (1) conventional tillage with crop residues incorporated into the soil (CT/IN); (2) conventional tillage with crop residues exported from the field (CT/OUT); (3) reduced tillage with crop residues incorporated into the soil (RT/IN); and (4) reduced tillage with crop residues exported from the field (RT/OUT). The different agricultural practices were applied on luvisol soil for four consecutive years prior to the initiation of the current study. The purpose of this study was to research the influence of agricultural practices on earthworms with considering species and their interactions with soil properties. The results indicated that the agricultural practices affected soil properties and earthworm communities. The penetration resistance measured to a depth of 50 cm increased with increasing soil depth in all treatments. Soil compaction was significantly higher in RT compared with CT. For each depth, measures of soil physico-chemical properties showed significant differences among treatments. Furthermore, soil samples showed higher P and K concentrations in 0 – 10 cm soil depth compared with other depths. The main reason for the large K and P accumulation near the soil surface is the incorporation of crop residues. Significant differences were not detected between residue incorporation depth treatments, where results showed mean earthworm abundance was respectively 182 and 180 individuals m-2 in CT and RT. Mean earthworm biomass was similarly not significantly different between CT and RT, ...