Earthworms, ants and other arthropods as soil health indicators in traditional and no-fire agro-ecosystems from Eastern Brazilian Amazonia

Rousseau, Guillaume; Silva, Paulo Rogério dos Santos; Carvalho, C. J. R. de

doi:10.21829/azm.2010.262882

Cited by 16 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…bras., Brasília, v.55, e01006, 2020 DOI: 10.1590/S1678-3921.pab2020.v55.01006 nation-wide monitoring programs in place, but both public and scientific interest in the state of the soil organism community, mainly of earthworms, are growing notably in France, the Netherlands, and Germany (Jeffery et al, 2010;Cluzeau et al, 2012;Römbke et al, 2016). In Brazil, the use of earthworm communities as bioindicators has been explored in several publications (Nunes et al, 2007;Uzêda et al, 2007;Andréa, 2010;Bartz et al, 2010;Fernandes et al, 2010;Lima & Brussaard, 2010;Marichal et al, 2010;Rousseau et al, 2010); however, up to now, only one earthworm-based soil quality classification has been proposed, considering the density of these invertebrates in areas under no-tillage in the western region of the state of Paraná, Southern Brazil (Bartz et al, 2013). Based on earthworm abundance, these authors classified soil quality under no-tillage in four classes: poor, with < 25 individuals per square meter; moderate, with ≥ 25-100 individuals per square meter; good, with > 100-200 individuals per square meter; and excellent, with > 200 individuals per square meter.…”

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confidence: 99%

Recommendations for assessing earthworm populations in Brazilian ecosystems

Nadolny

Santos

Demetrio

et al. 2020

Pesq. agropec. bras.

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Earthworms are often related to fertile soils and are also frequently used as environmental quality indicators. However, to optimize their use as bioindicators, earthworm populations must be evaluated together with the environmental and anthropogenic variables regulating their communities. This review sought to identify the earthworm-sampling, soil chemical and physical, and environmental and anthropogenic attributes evaluated in 124 published studies that quantified earthworm abundance (>7,300 samples) in 765 sites with different types of climate, soils, land use, and management systems in Brazil. Soil chemical and physical attributes (except pH) were less reported (≤50% of studies) than other environmental variables such as sampling date, altitude, temperature, precipitation, climate and soil type, and land use (>50% of studies). Earthworms were rarely identified (24%) and few studies (31%) measured their biomass, although most provided adequate information on sampling protocol. Based on their importance in regulating earthworm populations, a set of variables is proposed to be evaluated when studying earthworm communities and other macrofauna groups. This should help guide future studies on earthworms in Brazil and other countries, optimize data collection and replicability, allow comparisons between different studies, and promote the use of earthworms as soil quality bioindicators.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for assessing earthworm populations in Brazilian ecosystems

Nadolny

Santos

Demetrio

et al. 2020

Pesq. agropec. bras.

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Cropping Systems to Improve Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: The Outlook and Lines of Research

Clermont-Dauphin

Blanchart

Loranger-Merciris

et al. 2014

Sustainable Agriculture Reviews

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The intensive farming practices that have been developed over the past 60 years are based mainly on the use of chemical inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides, mechanical tillage and monoculture. The limitations of these methods are now clear: long-term degradation of soil fertility, impacts on the environment and human health, high consumption of fossil fuels, low efficiency of inputs and threats to food security in a context of climate change. Would farming practices that rely on the activation of ecological processes be an alternative to achieve a balance between high productivity and environmental preservation? While many studies suggest a positive relationship between soil biodiversity and ecosystem services, there is considerable debate on the form such agricultural systems should take. This study reviewed the state of current knowledge and identified aspects requiring further research to achieve the aim of sustainable intensification of agriculture. The following major points emerged: 1) Most studies focused on the evaluation of individual practices. However, changes in farmers’ cropping practices to take advantage of soil biodiversity services would need to manage not only the interactions between various practices but also the trade-off between the technical and socio economic constraints of cropping systems. Advances in agricultural system design approaches may help to ensure appropriate trade-offs. 2) More attention should be given to drawing on knowledge from different sources: laboratory studies focusing on the ecological functions of soil biodiversity, experimental surveys on farmers’ fields to rank the farming practices and processes to be included in site-specific models, and on- station experiments to test hypotheses and acquire additional reference material. 3) Whereas advances in technical and scientific knowledge provide an increasing number of relevant indicators for characterizing biodiversity and ecological functions, studies are rarely targeted at the development of indicators that are accessible to farmers or their technical advisors. The lack of indicators accessible to grassroots players for evaluating the impacts of their decisions on soil biodiversity remains a serious obstacle to the development of innovative agro-ecological systems

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Diversity and Distribution of Earthworms in Different Soil Habitats of Assam, North-East India, an Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot

Rajkhowa

Bhattacharyya

Sarma

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci.

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Species diversity and distribution of earthworms was carried out in different soil habitat conditions of Assam, north-east India, a part of Indo-Burma mega biodiversity hotspot. Seventeen species belonging to six different families namely Moniligastridae, Megascolecidae, Almidae, Glossocolecidae, Lumbricidae, Ocnerodrilidae were recorded from the study locations. The population density and biomass of the worm species ranged from 65-238 m -2 and 1.1-5.4 g m -2 across different sampling habitats. Relative occurrence of earthworm species varied according to soil habitat conditions. Amynthas diffringens, Perionyx excavates, Glyphidrilus gangeticus, Lampito mauritii were dominant species under agricultural land use system while Metaphire posthuma, Dichogaster saliens were the dominant species under open grass land and mixed forest system. The present investigation is the first report on diversity and distribution of earthworm species collected from different soil habitats of Assam, north-east India.

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Earthworms, ants and other arthropods as soil health indicators in traditional and no-fire agro-ecosystems from Eastern Brazilian Amazonia

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Recommendations for assessing earthworm populations in Brazilian ecosystems

Recommendations for assessing earthworm populations in Brazilian ecosystems

Cropping Systems to Improve Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: The Outlook and Lines of Research

Diversity and Distribution of Earthworms in Different Soil Habitats of Assam, North-East India, an Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot

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