Earthworms as ploughs and bioreactors: understanding mechanical and biogeochemical impacts for sustainable soils

Earthworms are ecosystem engineers; burrowing significantly impacts soil causing substantial particle movement, influencing soil physical properties and affecting many soil ecosystem services including food production, water retention and carbon storage. However, rates of bioturbation and earthworm responses to different land management techniques and climate change are currently poorly constrained. This hinders the incorporation of soil bioturbation within robust predictive models of landscape response to changes in management and climate.

Preliminary findings show that luminescence signals can detect when mineral grains are transported to the surface and subsequently become buried in the soil profile. Earthworms also impact mineral coatings on grains as soil passes through the gut, affecting how luminescence signals respond, so this project will also study microbial-mineral coating relationships providing better understanding of biogeochemical functioning within soil.