Tropical terrestrial model ecosystems for evaluation of soil fauna and leaf litter quality effects on litter consumption, soil microbial biomass and plant growth

Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira

Bernhard Förster²  Marcos Garcia¹  Hubert Höfer¹  Edward Morgan¹  Jörg Römbke² 

[1] ,ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH,Germany

关键词: Brachiaria decumbens;    Flemingia macrophylla;    Hevea pauciflora;    diplopods;    earthworms;    isopods;    Brachiaria decumbens;    Flemingia macrophylla;    Hevea pauciflora;    diplópodes;    minhocas;    isópodes;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0100-204X2009000800040

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

The aim of this work was to evaluate whether terrestrial model ecosystems (TMEs) are a useful tool for the study of the effects of litter quality, soil invertebrates and mineral fertilizer on litter decomposition and plant growth under controlled conditions in the tropics. Forty-eight intact soil cores (17.5-cm diameter, 30-cm length) were taken out from an abandoned rubber plantation on Ferralsol soil (Latossolo Amarelo) in Central Amazonia, Brazil, and kept at 28ºC in the laboratory during four months. Leaf litter of either Hevea pauciflora (rubber tree), Flemingia macrophylla (a shrubby legume) or Brachiaria decumbens (a pasture grass) was put on top of each TME. Five specimens of either Pontoscolex corethrurus or Eisenia fetida (earthworms), Porcellionides pruinosus or Circoniscus ornatus (woodlice), and Trigoniulus corallinus (millipedes) were then added to the TMEs. Leaf litter type significantly affected litter consumption, soil microbial biomass and nitrate concentration in the leachate of all TMEs, but had no measurable effect on the shoot biomass of rice seedlings planted in top soil taken from the TMEs. Feeding rates measured with bait lamina were significantly higher in TMEs with the earthworm P. corethrurus and the woodlouse C. ornatus. TMEs are an appropriate tool to assess trophic interactions in tropical soil ecossistems under controlled laboratory conditions.

【 授权许可】

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