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Marine macroalgae as food for earthworms: growth and selection experiments across ecotypes
- Source :
- Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Springer Verlag, 2020, 27 (27), pp.33493-33499. ⟨10.1007/s11356-020-07666-y⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Historically, subsistence farmers around the Atlantic coast of NW Europe utilized marine algae as a fertilizer in agroecosystems, a practice that continued in small areas and is now considered to have real potential for re-establishing sustainable food production systems on marginal soils. Earthworms form a significant component of soil fauna, and their ecosystem services are well-documented. Therefore, palatability of marine organic amendments to faunal detritivores of terrestrial systems is of interest. This work aimed to assess the potential for growth of Aporrectodea caliginosa, Lumbricus rubellus and Aporrectodea longa fed with two common macroalgae (seaweeds), Laminaria digitata and Fucus serratus. In addition, choice chambers were constructed to permit earthworm selection of these macroalgae with more conventional organic materials, horse manure (HM) and birch leaves (BL). Over a period of 2 months, earthworm species showed significantly greater mass gain with conventional food (p Laminaria outperformed Fucus, which in turn was superior to soil alone. Similarly, when given a choice, a significant preference (p A. caliginosa when offered seaweeds only. By contrast, L. rubellus and A. longa showed significant preferences (p Laminaria over Fucus and fresh material over degraded. These results underline an interest to profit from natural resources (seaweeds) to maintain or improve soil biological quality in marginal coastal areas.
- Subjects :
- C150
Fucus serratus
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Soil biology
C110
010501 environmental sciences
Choice chamber
01 natural sciences
Macroalgae
Birch leaves
Earthworm and Soil Pollution
Horse manure
Environmental Chemistry
Animals
Horses
Oligochaeta
Agroecosystems
ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS
Ecosystem
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
2. Zero hunger
Ecotype
Laminaria
C161
biology
Earthworm
Laminaria digitata
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
General Medicine
15. Life on land
Lumbricus rubellus
biology.organism_classification
Seaweed
Pollution
Manure
Europe
Agronomy
[SDE]Environmental Sciences
040103 agronomy & agriculture
Fucus
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
C180
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16147499 and 09441344
- Volume :
- 27
- Issue :
- 27
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Environmental Science and Pollution Research International
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....356cfe778baef7105c6275b10700764a