the effect of earthworm (lumbricus terrestris l.) population density and soil water content interactions on nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils蚯蚓的作用(地龙terrestris l .).pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Applied and Environmental Soil Science Volume 2010, Article ID 737096, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2010/737096 Research Article The Effect of Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris L.) Population Density and Soil Water Content Interactions on Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Agricultural Soils Andrew K. Evers,1 Tyler A. Demers,2 Andrew M. Gordon,1 and Naresh V. Thevathasan1 1 School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1 2 Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1 Correspondence should be addressed to Andrew K. Evers, aevers@uoguelph.ca Received 30 June 2009; Revised 1 March 2010; Accepted 14 March 2010 Academic Editor: Natchimuthu Karmegam Copyright © 2010 Andrew K. Evers et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Earthworms may have an influence on the production of N2 O, a greenhouse gas, as a result of the ideal environment contained in their gut and casts for denitrifier bacteria. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris L.) population density, soil water content and N2 O emissions in a controlled greenhouse experiment based on population densities (90 to 270 individuals m−2 ) found at the Guelph Agroforestry Research Station (GARS) from 1997 to 1998. An experiment conducted at considerably higher than normal densities of earthworms revealed a significant relationship between earthworm density, soil water content and N2 O emissions, with mean emissions increasing to 43.5 g ha−1day−1 at 30 earthworms