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Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments

Earthworms benefit agriculture by providing several ecosystem services. Therefore, strategies to increase earthworm abundance and activity in agricultural soils should be identified, and encouraged. Lumbricus terrestris earthworms primarily feed on organic inputs to soils but it is not known which o...

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Autores principales: Sizmur, Tom, Martin, Elodie, Wagner, Kevin, Parmentier, Emilie, Watts, Chris, Whitmore, Andrew P
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Science B. V 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5391807/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28469291
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2016.12.006
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author Sizmur, Tom
Martin, Elodie
Wagner, Kevin
Parmentier, Emilie
Watts, Chris
Whitmore, Andrew P
author_facet Sizmur, Tom
Martin, Elodie
Wagner, Kevin
Parmentier, Emilie
Watts, Chris
Whitmore, Andrew P
author_sort Sizmur, Tom
collection PubMed
description Earthworms benefit agriculture by providing several ecosystem services. Therefore, strategies to increase earthworm abundance and activity in agricultural soils should be identified, and encouraged. Lumbricus terrestris earthworms primarily feed on organic inputs to soils but it is not known which organic amendments are the most effective for increasing earthworm populations. We conducted earthworm surveys in the field and carried out experiments in single-earthworm microcosms to determine the optimum food source for increasing earthworm biomass using a selection of crop residues and organic wastes available to agriculture. We found that although farmyard manure increased earthworm populations more than cereal straw in the field, straw increased earthworm biomass more than manures when milled and applied to microcosms. Earthworm growth rates were positively correlated with the calorific value of the amendment and straw had a much higher calorific value than farmyard manure, greenwaste compost, or anaerobic digestate. Reducing the particle size of straw by milling to <3 mm made the energy in the straw more accessible to earthworms. The benefits and barriers to applying milled straw to arable soils in the field are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-53918072017-05-01 Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments Sizmur, Tom Martin, Elodie Wagner, Kevin Parmentier, Emilie Watts, Chris Whitmore, Andrew P Appl Soil Ecol Article Earthworms benefit agriculture by providing several ecosystem services. Therefore, strategies to increase earthworm abundance and activity in agricultural soils should be identified, and encouraged. Lumbricus terrestris earthworms primarily feed on organic inputs to soils but it is not known which organic amendments are the most effective for increasing earthworm populations. We conducted earthworm surveys in the field and carried out experiments in single-earthworm microcosms to determine the optimum food source for increasing earthworm biomass using a selection of crop residues and organic wastes available to agriculture. We found that although farmyard manure increased earthworm populations more than cereal straw in the field, straw increased earthworm biomass more than manures when milled and applied to microcosms. Earthworm growth rates were positively correlated with the calorific value of the amendment and straw had a much higher calorific value than farmyard manure, greenwaste compost, or anaerobic digestate. Reducing the particle size of straw by milling to <3 mm made the energy in the straw more accessible to earthworms. The benefits and barriers to applying milled straw to arable soils in the field are discussed. Elsevier Science B. V 2017-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5391807/ /pubmed/28469291 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2016.12.006 Text en © 2017 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sizmur, Tom
Martin, Elodie
Wagner, Kevin
Parmentier, Emilie
Watts, Chris
Whitmore, Andrew P
Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title_full Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title_fullStr Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title_full_unstemmed Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title_short Milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
title_sort milled cereal straw accelerates earthworm (lumbricus terrestris) growth more than selected organic amendments
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5391807/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28469291
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2016.12.006
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