Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the burrowing activity of two earthworm species: the endogeic Drawida sinica and one undescribed Amynthas species incubated in Vertisol and Ultisol presenting different soil organic C content. Because of their contrasting feeding behaviours, we hypothesised that soil type would have a bigger influence on the burrowing activity of the endogeic than the anecic species. Repacked soil columns inoculated with earthworms for 30 days were scanned using X-ray tomography and the compiled images used to characterise the burrow systems. After scanning, the saturated hydraulic conductivity (K sat) was also measured. The Amynthas species burrows were less numerous (30 vs. 180), more vertically oriented (57 vs. 37°), more connected from the surface to the bottom of the columns (73 vs. 5 cm3) and had a higher global connectivity index (83 vs. 28%) than those of D. sinica. The K sat was threefold faster in columns incubated with Amynthas and was linked to the volume of percolating burrows (R 2 = 0.81). The soil type did not influence Amynthas burrow characteristics. In contrast, there were 30% more D. sinica burrows in the Vertisol than in the Ultisol while other burrow characteristics were not affected. This result suggests that these burrows were more refilled with casts leading to shorter and discontinuous burrows. The K sat was negatively related to the number of burrows (R 2 = 0.44) but was not statistically different between the Vertisol and the Ultisol, suggesting a constant impact of this species on the K sat. We found that a decrease in the amount of soil organic C by 50% had only a small influence on earthworm burrowing activity and no effect on the K sat.
Change history
25 September 2017
The original version of this article, unfortunately, contained errors. The name of the author was incorrectly spelled as “X. Peng”. The correct spelling is “X. H. Peng” and the corresponding author of this article was changed from Nicolas Bottinelli to X. H. Peng.
References
Bastardie F, Cannavacciuolo M, Capowiez Y, de Dreuzy JR, Bellido A, Cluzeau D (2002) A new simulation for modelling the topology of earthworm burrow systems and their effects on macropore flow in experimental soils. Biol Fertil Soils 36:161–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-002-0514-0
Bastardie F, Capowiez Y, de Dreuzy JR, Cluzeau D (2003) X-ray tomographic and hydraulic characterization of burrowing by three earthworm species in repacked soil cores. Appl Soil Ecol 24:3–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0929-1393(03)00071-4
Bastardie F, Ruy S, Cluzeau D (2005) Assessment of earthworm contribution to soil hydrology: a laboratory method to measure water diffusion through burrow walls. Biol Fertil Soils 41:124–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-004-0817-4
Blouin M, Sery N, Cluzeau D, Brun JJ, Bédécarrats A (2013) Balkanized research in ecological engineering revealed by a bibliometric analysis of earthworms and ecosystem services. Environ Manag 52:309–320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0079-8
Bouché MB (1971) Relations entre les structures spatiales et fonctionnelles des écosystèmes, illustrées par le rôle pédobiologique des vers de terre. In: Pesson P (ed) La vie dans les sols. Gauthier-Villars, Paris, pp 187–209
Bouché MB (1975) Action de la faune sur les etats de la matiere organique dans les ecosystemes. In: Kilbertus G, Reisinger O, Mourey A, Cancela da Fonsesca JA (eds) Biodegradation et humification. Pierron, Sarreguemines, pp 157–168
Capowiez Y, Bottinelli N, Sammartino S, Michel E, Jouquet P (2015) Morphological and functional characterisation of the burrow systems of six earthworm species (Lumbricidae). Biol Fertil Soils 51:869–877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-015-1036-x
Curry JP, Schmidt O (2006) The feeding ecology of earthworms—a review. Pedobiologia 50:463–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedobi.2006.09.001
Dal Ferro N, Charrier P, Morari F (2013) Dual-scale micro-CT assessment of soil structure in a long-term fertilization experiment. Geoderma 204–205:84–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.04.012
Edwards WM, Shipitalo MJ, Traina SJ, Edwards CA, Owens LB (1992) Role of Lumbricus terrestris (L.) burrows on quality of infiltrating water. Soil Biol Biochem 24:1555–1561. https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-0717(92)90150-V
Ernst G, Felten D, Vohland M, Emmerling C (2009) Impact of ecologically different earthworm species on soil water characteristics. Eur J Soil Biol 45:207–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2009.01.001
Evans AC (1947) A method of studying the burrowing activities of earthworms. J Nat Hist 14:643–650
Hughes MS, Bull CM, Doube BM (1996) Microcosm investigations into the influence of sheep manure on the behaviour of the geophagous earthworms Aporrectodea trapezoides and Microscolex dubuis. Biol Fertil Soils 22:71–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00384435
Martin NA (1982) Interaction between organic matter in soil and the burrowing activity of three species of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae). Pedobiologia 24:185–190
McDaniel JP, Butters G, Barbarick KA, Stromberger ME (2015) Effects of Apporectoda caliginosa on soil hydraulic properties and solute dispersivity. Soil Sci Soc Am J 79:838–847. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2014.07.0290
RStudio-Team (2015) RStudio: integrated development for R. RStudio, Inc., Boston URL http://www.rstudio.com/
Sander T, Gerke HH (2009) Modelling field-data of preferential flow in paddy soil induced by earthworm burrows. J Contam Hydrol 104:126–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.11.003
Schindelin J et al (2012) Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis. Nat Methods 9:676–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2019
Shipitalo MJ, Le Bayon RC (2004) Quantifying the effects of earthworms on soil aggregation and porosity. In: Edwards CA (ed) Earthworm ecology. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 183–200
Acknowledgments
Dr. Bottinelli thanks the Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellowships for Young International Scientists (Code: 2012Y1ZB003) for supporting his stay in China.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Code: 41371235, 41350110532 and 41471183) and National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFD0300809).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The original version of this article was revised: the name of the author was incorrectly spelled as “X. Peng”. The correct spelling is “X. H. Peng” and the corresponding author of this article was changed from “Nicolas Bottinelli” to “X. H. Peng”. These are now presented correctly in this article.
An erratum to this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1240-y.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bottinelli, N., Zhou, H., Capowiez, Y. et al. Earthworm burrowing activity of two non-Lumbricidae earthworm species incubated in soils with contrasting organic carbon content (Vertisol vs. Ultisol). Biol Fertil Soils 53, 951–955 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1235-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1235-8