Data/hora: 23/06/2024 21:51:35

Biblioteca(s): | Embrapa Florestas.
Data corrente: | 18/09/2008
Data da última atualização: | 18/09/2008
Autoria: | LAOSSI, K. R.; NOGUERA, D.; BAROT, S.
Título: | Effects of endogeic and anecic earthworms on the competition between annual plants in a microcosm study.
Ano de publicação: | 2008
Fonte/Imprenta: | In: INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SOIL ZOOLOGY, 15; INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON APTERYGOTA, 12., 2008, Curitiba. Biodiversity, conservation and sustainabele management of soil animal: abstracts. Colombo: Embrapa Florestas. Editors: George Gardner Brown; Klaus Dieter Sautter; Renato Marques; Amarildo Pasini. 1 CD-ROM.
Idioma: | Inglês

Conteúdo:

In communities, plants compete for light, water and nutrients which are essentials for their growth.
This in turn determines the composition of plant communities. Although, endogeic and anecic
earthworms are known to affect plant growth and competition, studies investigating in the same
experiments their combined effects on the growth and reproduction of several plants species in
competition are surprisingly lacking. The effects of an endogeic (Aporrectodea caliginosa) and
an anecic earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) on the competition between a grass (Poa annua),
two forbs (Veronica persica and Cerastium glomeratum) and a legume (Trifolium dubium) were
investigated in a greenhouse experiment. We established two types of plant community:
monoculture and mixture of the four species. The presence of L. terrestris promoted the growth
of P. annua and this effect is more pronounced in mixture than in monoculture. Treatments with
the two earthworm species increased the shoot biomass of V. persica. The shoot biomasses of
C. glomeratum and T. dubium were not affected by the earthworms. Earthworms did not affect
the seed mass and the number of seeds per plants of V. persica, C. glomeratum and P. annua.
However an interaction between the two earthworm species increased the number of seeds of
T. dubium. Composition (monoculture vs. mixture) affected significantly the shoot biomasses of
C. glomeratum, T. dubium and P. annua and the number of seeds of T. dubium. The shoot biomass
of C. glomeratum was higher in monoculture while the shoot biomasses of P. annua and T.
dubium were higher in mixture. The number of seeds of T. dubium was also higher in mixture.
These results suggest that L. terrestris and the interaction between the two earthworm species
enhanced respectively the short term competitiveness of P. annua and V. persica by promoting
their growth. The interaction between the two earthworm species on the number of seeds of T.
dubium, suggests that after several generations this plant may dominate the plant community.
And thus enhance its long term competitiveness. For short, we have shown that anecic earthworms
and their interaction with endogeic earthworms may affect plant competition and the structure of
plant communities by promoting different plant species in the short and long term

Categoria do assunto: | --
Registro original: | Embrapa Florestas (CNPF)
Exemplares: | CNPF - (43613-1) - UPE - PL - -- - CD0305 -  -  - DIS