Ploughing on regardless?

在传统的农业管理方法下，蚯蚓数量急剧减少。这与集约耕作（生境干扰）、不良的有机质管理（粮食供应中断）和农用化学品暴露（低生育率）的综合作用有关。这是一个问题，因为蚯蚓是土壤生态系统工程师。蚯蚓提供了许多土壤生态系统服务，包括提高无机养分生物利用度，降低全蚀病和镰刀菌病的发病率和严重程度，改善土壤水分平衡，固碳，分散有益土壤细菌和促进豆科植物结瘤。土壤对人类至关重要，但正在迅速退化。英国农业技术战略已经确定，土壤退化和生物多样性丧失威胁着土壤安全。因此，恢复和管理蚯蚓资源对农业土壤安全至关重要。“不顾一切地耕耘”？团契有两个目标。首先，测试基于三叶草-秸秆-小麦管理策略的农业生态系统模型，以快速恢复和维持蚯蚓数量的增加。洛桑研究所的长期试验将用于为作物轮作和当地最低耕作农民网络提供信息，以了解蚯蚓丰度的季节性变化。为实现这一目标，我们将开发一种新的生物指示技术，该技术基于中胚芽计数。其次，将对扩大蚯蚓对土壤安全和农业土壤利用的效益的组合处理进行调查。其中包括小麦与蚯蚓的相互作用，蚯蚓介导的地下相互作用和蚯蚓介导的地下/地上相互作用，以提供对最小耕作农业生态系统的整体理解。这些实地和实验室研究成果将用于指导以蚯蚓为中心的最少耕作方法。此外，提供关于蚯蚓、AMF和肥料如何相互作用以提供地下生态系统服务的科学理解，以及蚯蚓在影响地上相互作用的残留物整合中可以发挥的作用。

Earthworm populations have collapsed under conventional management practices in agriculture. This is linked to a combination of intensive tillage (habitat disturbance), poor organic matter management (food supply interruption) and agro-chemical exposure (low fertility). This is a problem because earthworms are soil ecosystem engineers. Earthworms provide many soil ecosystem services including improving inorganic nutrient bioavailability, reduce Take-all and Fusarium disease incidence and severity, improving soil water balances, carbon sequestration, disperse beneficial soil bacteria and promote legume nodulation. Soils are vital to humankind, but are being rapidly degraded. The UK agri-tech strategy has identified that soil degradation and biodiversity loss threatens soil security. Thus, restoring and managing earthworm resources are vital to soil security in agriculture. This 'Ploughing on regardless?' fellowship has two goals. Firstly to test a model agro-ecosystem based on a clover-residue-wheat management strategy to rapidly rejuvenate and maintain elevated earthworm populations. The Rothamsted long term experiment trials will be used to inform crop rotations and local minimum tillage farmers network to inform on seasonal changes to earthworm abundances. A novel bio-indicator technique based on midden counting will be developed and used for this goal. Secondly, investigations into combinations of treatments that amplify earthworm benefits to soil security and soil use in agriculture will be performed. These include wheat-cultivar earthworm interactions, earthworm mediated below-ground interactions and earthworm mediated below-ground/above ground interactions to provide a holistic understanding of minimum tillage agro-ecosystems. These field and laboratory study outcomes will be used to provide guidance on earthworm-centred, minimum tillage farming practices. Further, provide a scientific understanding of how earthworm, AMF and fertiliser interacts to deliver below-ground ecosystem services, and the role earthworms can play in residue incorporation that affect above-ground interactions.