Abstract
Rice crop residues are one of the recalcitrant agricultural wastes in arid conditions. A laboratory experiment was conducted to decompose rice straw with woodlice and millipedes living in the dry steppes of Kalmykia in Russia. Five individuals of two species of woodlice (Armadillidium vulgare and Protracheoniscus kryszanovskii) or two species of millipedes (Brachydesmus assimilis and Cylindroiulus sp.) were placed in microcosms with soil and 2.5 g of rice straw. The straw mass significantly decreased for all species, by approximately 50% on average for the 4 months of the experiment. The content of organic matter in the soil before and after the experiment did not change significantly, which suggests that the selected species of woodlice and millipedes can consume and, thus utilize, rice straw, at least under experimental conditions.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to E.B. Dedova, S.N. Chimitov, and E.V. Popikov for the opportunity to work in the rice paddies of the Oktyabrsky district of Kalmykia and for their help with the collection of the material. The authors are grateful to D.I. Korobushkin for the identification of millipedes.
Funding
The study was partially financed by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 16-14-00096 “Role of invertebrates in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increase of climatic and environmental safety of rice production in Russia”) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 18-29-25 067 “Using soil animals for bioconversion of agricultural wastes into products with high added value”).
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Lebedev, Y.M., Gongalsky, K.B., Gorbunova, A.Y. et al. Rice Straw Decomposition by Woodlice (Isopoda, Oniscidea) and Millipedes (Myriapoda, Diplopoda) in the Soils of Kalmykia in a Laboratory Experiment. Arid Ecosyst 10, 251–254 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079096120030026
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079096120030026