1 2 It is now attested that a large part of the Amazonian rain forest has been cultivated 3 during Pre-Colombian times, using charcoal as an amendment. The incorporation of charcoal 4 to the soil is a starting point for the formation of fertile Amazonian Dark Earths, still selected 5 by Indian people for shifting cultivation. We showed that finely separated charcoal was 6 commonly incorporated ...

Non-native earthworms have invaded ecosystems around the world but have recently received increased attention as they invaded previously earthworm-free habitats in northern North America. Earthworms can affect plants by ingesting seeds and burying them in the soil. These effects can be negative or positive but are expected to become increasingly negative with decreasing seed size. Orchids have ...

Hsi-Te Shih, Hsueh-Wen Chang and Jiun-Hong Chen (1999) A review of the earthworms (Annelida: Oligochaeta) from Taiwan. Zoological Studies 38(4): 435-442. The study of earthworms of Taiwan began with the Japanese scholars Goto and Hatai (1898). The collecting sites from available publications are limited to Ilan, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung. A total of 26 species be...

Nephridial (excretory organ) symbionts are widespread in lumbricid earthworms and the complexity of the nephridial symbiont communities varies greatly between earthworm species. The two most common symbionts are the well-described Verminephrobacter and less well-known Flexibacter-like bacteria. Verminephrobacter are present in almost all lumbricid earthworms, they are species-specific, vertical...

Earthworms affect soil structure and the movement of agrochemicals. Yet, there have been few field-scale studies that quantify the effect of earthworms on dissolved nitrogen fluxes in agroecosystems. We investigated the influence of semi-annual earthworm additions on leachate production and quality in different row crop agroecosystems. Chisel-till corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Me...

The landscapes colonized by invasive earthworms in the eastern U.S. are often patchworks of forest stands in various stages of successional development. We established six field sites in tulip poplar dominated forests in the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, that span mid (50–70 years-three plots) and late (120– 150 years-three plots) successional stages where younger ...

The horizontal spatial distribution of earthworms in a native savanna and in a 17 year introduced pasture from the area of Carimagua (Colombia) was assessed by means of aggregation indices and geostatistical analysis. Morisita’s index (Id) and Taylor’s index (b) were calculated from field data obtained through 1 m2 quadrats during a sampling period of 17 months and both semivariograms and conto...

Biolog EcoPlates™ can be used to measure the carbon substrate utilisation patterns of microbial communities. This method results in a community-level physiological profile (CLPP), which yields a very large amount of data that may be difficult to interpret. In this work, we explore a combination of statistical techniques (particularly the use of generalised additive models [GAMs]) to improve the...