Earthworms as ploughs and bioreactors: understanding mechanical and biogeochemical impacts for sustainable soils

蚯蚓作为犁和生物反应器：了解可持续土壤的机械和生物地球化学影响

• 批准号: 2884067
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2884067
• 关键词: Earthworms; ploughs; bioreactors; understanding; mechanical

Earthworms are ecosystem engineers; burrowing significantly impacts soil causing substantial particle movement, influencing soil physical properties and affecting many soil ecosystem services including food production, water retention and carbon storage. However, rates of bioturbation and earthworm responses to different land management techniques and climate change are currently poorly constrained. This hinders the incorporation of soil bioturbation within robust predictive models of landscape response to changes in management and climate. Preliminary findings show that luminescence signals can detect when mineral grains are transported to the surface and subsequently become buried in the soil profile. Earthworms also impact mineral coatings on grains as soil passes through the gut, affecting how luminescence signals respond, so this project will also study microbial-mineral coating relationships providing better understanding of biogeochemical functioning within soil.

蚯蚓是生态系统工程师;挖掘显著影响土壤，造成大量颗粒运动，影响土壤物理性质，并影响许多土壤生态系统服务，包括粮食生产，保水和碳储存。然而，生物扰动率和对不同土地管理技术和气候变化的生物扰动反应目前受到很大限制。这阻碍了土壤生物扰动纳入强大的预测模型的景观管理和气候变化的反应。初步研究结果表明，发光信号可以检测矿物颗粒何时被运送到表面，随后被埋在土壤剖面中。蚯蚓还影响谷物上的矿物涂层，因为土壤通过肠道，影响发光信号的响应方式，因此该项目还将研究微生物-矿物涂层的关系，以更好地了解土壤中的生物地球化学功能。