To assess the role of macrofauna-mediated sediment changes on nematode community recovery, we examined the temporal development of macrobenthos, nematode communities and sediment properties following hypoxia in 16 m2 replicated plots over a 6 mo period. Hypoxia drastically changed nematode community composition (i.e. reduced diversity and abundances of all dominant nematodes, except Odontophora...

Background: Bt crops modified by inserting and expressing the Cry toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis have raised environmental concerns over consequences for sustainability of soil biodiversity and ecosystems services in agricultural land. Part of this concern is related to the possible effects of the exposure to Cry toxins of non-target soil invertebrates as a result of Bt crops cultivation. So...

Denitrification is a critical process that can alleviate the effects of excessive nitrogen availability in aquatic ecosystems subject to eutrophication. An important part of denitrification occurs in benthic systems where bioturbation by meiofauna (invertebrates <1 mm) and its effect on element cycling are still not well understood. Here we study the quantitative impact of meiofauna populations...

The alpine wetlands in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau have degraded recent decades. However, response of soil food web to degradation is still unclear. Four habitats including a wet meadow (WM), grassland (GM), moderately (MDM) and severely (SDM) (sandy meadows) were selected along degrees degradation. macrofaunal biomass environmental factors vegetation investigated. community increased significa...

Earthworms form an essential group of soil macrofauna that performs a number ecosystem functions in forests. Studies the species composition and population density earthworms were conducted many regions Russia; however, fauna Lumbricidae Novosibirsk area remained unexplored for long time. The objective this work is to carry out comparative analysis earthworm coniferous small foliage forests for...