Location-dependency of earthworm response to reduced tillage on sandy soil

Joschko, Monika; Gebbers, Robin; Barkusky, Dietmar; Rogasik, Jutta; Höhn, Wilfried; Hierold, Wilfried; Fox, Catherine A.; Timmer, Jens

doi:10.1016/j.still.2008.07.023

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In contrast to earlier studies, which suggest that soil organic matter and carbon content are good predictors of earthworm density (Poier and Richter 1992, Kladivko et al 1997, van Vliet et al 2007, Joschko et al 2009), we did not find carbon or nitrogen content to be directly related to earthworm number or biomass. Instead, we found that the relation between soil C:N ratio and earthworm density depended on the soil type: in clays, high C:N ratio was associated with high earthworm numbers; in silts and very fine sands, C:N ratio and earthworm numbers were not related; and in fine sands and sands a high ratio was associated with low numbers.…”

Section: Variables Controlling Earthworm Communities In Cultivated Ficontrasting

confidence: 99%

Local land use effects and regional environmental limits on earthworm communities in Finnish arable landscapes

Nieminen

Ketoja

Mikola

et al. 2011

Ecological Applications

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In many arable soils, earthworms form the key component of the soil animal community and greatly contribute to soil quality. Our goal was to identify variables that can explain the variation of earthworm communities across Finnish arable fields by focusing on both regional aspects, such as climate and inherent soil properties, and local aspects, such as field management practices and field margins. We sampled the earthworms during the autumn of 2004 and 2005 at 53 sites of cultivated fields and margins, distributed to 11 localities ranging from the southern parts of Finland to the Arctic Circle. Simultaneously, information was collected on topsoil properties, cultivation history, and climatic factors. We found that soil type was by far the best regional variable to explain the variation in total earthworm density, the density being highest in medium coarse soils, i.e., silts and very fine sands. However, soil type had a significant interaction with soil C:N ratio. After accounting for the effect of soil type, no clear geographical trends remained in the regional variation, except that coastal areas with thin snow cover and deep frost had lower earthworm density than inland areas with deep snow cover and shallow frost. Of the local variables, tillage frequency, grazing, and field margins were the most influential. Frequent tillage led to earthworm communities heavily dominated by endogeic species, while grazed pastures had more than three times the earthworm biomass in comparison to non‐grazed fields. Field margins harbored over twice the density and almost double the number of species in comparison to the adjacent cultivated fields, and eight of the nine species had wider regional distribution in the margins than in the fields. Inside the fields, species richness tended to decrease gradually with increasing distance to the margin. Our results suggest that, while soil texture and climatic factors set the general limits to earthworm communities in Finnish arable soils, field management practices can override these limits at the local scale. Cultivation in general simplifies the earthworm community, and this is particularly clear in the fields that are frequently tilled, whereas pastures and field margins seem to effectively preserve the biomass and diversity of earthworms.

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Section: Variables Controlling Earthworm Communities In Cultivated Ficontrasting

confidence: 99%

Local land use effects and regional environmental limits on earthworm communities in Finnish arable landscapes

Nieminen

Ketoja

Mikola

et al. 2011

Ecological Applications

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“…Common terminology for reduced tillage treatments used in the literature Fortune, Dunne, 2003 andFortune et al, 2005;and Kennedy, Connery, Fortune, Forristal, & Grant, 2013;Korsaeth, 2008 andLoes, 2009;L aszl o, 2007 andBirkas, Bottlik, Stingli, Gyuricza, &Jol ankai, 2010;Joschko et al, 2009Joschko et al, , 2012Severon, Joschko, Barkusky, &Graefe, 2012 andSchirrmann et al, 2016).…”

Section: Tillage Categories (Codes In Brackets)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conventional tillage decreases the abundance and biomass of earthworms and alters their community structure in a global meta‐analysis

Briones

Schmidt

2017

Global Change Biology

252

166

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Article (refereed) -postprintBriones, María Jesús I.; Schmidt, Olaf. 2017. Conventional tillage decreases the abundance and biomass of earthworms and alters their community structure in a global meta-analysis. Global Change Biology, 23 (10). 4396-4419. 10.1111/gcb.13744 Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. Accepted ArticleThis article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. AbstractThe adoption of less intensive soil cultivation practices is expected to increase earthworm populations and their contributions to ecosystem functioning. However, conflicting results have been reported on the effects of tillage intensity on earthworm populations, attributed in narrative reviews to site-dependent differences in soil properties, climatic conditions, and agronomic operations (e.g., fertilization, residue management and chemical crop protection).We present a quantitative review based on a global meta-analysis, using paired observations from 215 studies performed over 65 years across 40 countries on five continents, to elucidate this long-standing unresolved issue. Results showed that disturbing the soil less (e.g., no-tillage and Conservation Agriculture) significantly increased earthworm abundance (mean increase of 137% and 127%, respectively) and biomass (196% and 101%, respectively) compared to when the soil is inverted by conventional ploughing. Earthworm population responses were more pronounced when the soil had been under reduced tillage for a long time (>10 years), in warm temperate zones with fine-textured soils, and in soils with higher clay contents (>35%) and low pH (<5.5). Furthermore, retaining organic harvest residues amplified this positive response to reduced tillage, whereas the use of the herbicide glyphosate did not significantly affect earthworm population responses to reduced tillage.Additional meta-analyses confirmed that epigeic and, more importantly, the bigger-sized anecic earthworms, were the most sensitive ecological groups to conventional tillage. In particular, the deep burrower Lumbricus terrestris exhibited the strongest positive response to reduced tillage, increasing in abundance by 124% more than the overall mean of all 13 species analysed individually. The restoration of these two important ecological groups of earthworms and their burrowing, feeding and casting activities under various forms of reduced tillage will ensure the provision of ecosystem functions such as soil structure maintenance and nutrient cycling by "nature's plough". Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Co...

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“…The study was carried out in a 74 ha field belonging to the Komturei Lietzen (Märkisch-Oderland, Brandenburg, NE Germany) on highly variable sandy loam. Detailed information about the site is found in Joschko et al (2009). Within this field, 42 plots (2 m × 15 m) are permanently installed in four transects following the main slope (aspect) and tillage direction.…”

Section: Study Site and Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The power of ECa data for predicting earthworm occurrence was tested by comparing estimations based on ECa data with measured earthworm abundances. At the studied site, close relations between earthworm abundances and soil properties such as soil texture have been ascertained (Joschko et al, 2009). We hypothesized that the relationship between measurements of ECa and earthworm populations should be close.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The apparent electrical conductivity as a surrogate variable for predicting earthworm abundances in tilled soils

Joschko

Gebbers²,

Barkusky

et al. 2010

Z. Pflanzenernähr. Bodenk.

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Noninvasive geophysical methods have a great potential for improving soil-biological studies at field or regional scales: they enable the rapid acquisition of soil information which may help to identify potential habitats for soil biota. A precondition for this application is the existence of close relationships between geophysical measurements and the soil organism of interest. This study was conducted to determine whether field measurements of apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) are related to abundances of earthworms in tilled soils. Relationships between ECa and earthworm populations were investigated along transects at 42 plots under reduced and conventional tillage at a 74 ha field on sandy-loam soil in NE Germany. Relations were analyzed with linear-regression and spatial analysis. The apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) was quantitatively related to earthworm abundances sampled 5 months after the geophysical measurements. No relationship was found, however, in plots under conventional tillage when analyzed separately. If earthworm abundances were known at every other location along the transects and if the state-space approach was used for analysis, the analysis of ECa measurements and earthworm abundances indicated that 50% of the earthworm samples could have been substituted by ECa measurements. Further research is needed to fully evaluate the potential of ECa measurements for predicting earthworm habitats in tilled soil.

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Location-dependency of earthworm response to reduced tillage on sandy soil

Cited by 24 publications

References 53 publications

Local land use effects and regional environmental limits on earthworm communities in Finnish arable landscapes

Local land use effects and regional environmental limits on earthworm communities in Finnish arable landscapes

Conventional tillage decreases the abundance and biomass of earthworms and alters their community structure in a global meta‐analysis

The apparent electrical conductivity as a surrogate variable for predicting earthworm abundances in tilled soils

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