ABSTRACT This study examined the role of earthworms in the stabilisation of soil organic carbon from livestock dung in a long-term mesocosm study, including its incorporation in deeper soil layers and association with particle size fractions. Two earthworm treatments were established, with the abundant and diverse treatment having 390 m−2 less epigeic Lumbricus rubellus, 2400 m−2 more endogeic Aporrectodea caliginosa and 220 m−2 more anecic Aporrectodea longa at the final sampling than the treatment dominated by epigeic species. The abundant and diverse earthworm treatment increased the decomposition of dung in the surface 20 mm, and doubled the amount of dung-derived C within the <250 µm size fractions at 20–75 mm depth compared to the epigeic treatment (4.8 vs. 9.8 g/kg soil, respectively). Earthworms have the ability to increase sequestration of C into smaller, and potentially more stable, size fractions.

中文翻译：

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蚯蚓诱导粪碳转移到土壤颗粒大小部分

摘要 本研究在一项长期中观研究中检验了蚯蚓在稳定来自牲畜粪便的土壤有机碳中的作用，包括将其掺入更深的土壤层以及与粒度分数的关联。建立了两种蚯蚓处理，在最终采样时，丰富多样的处理比以表观物种为主的处理减少了 390 m-2 的表生 Lumbricus rubellus，多 2400 m-2 的内生 Aporrectodea caliginosa 和 220 m-2 的无毛 Aporrectodea longa . 与表观处理相比，丰富多样的蚯蚓处理增加了 20 毫米表面粪便的分解，并使 20-75 毫米深度小于 250 微米尺寸部分的粪便衍生的 C 量增加了一倍（4.8 对 9.8 克） /kg 土壤）。