Mining the Drilosphere: Bacterial Communities and Denitrifier Abundance in a No-Till Wheat Cropping System.

ABSTRACT: Earthworms play important roles in no-till cropping systems by redistributing crop residue to lower soil horizons, providing macropores for root growth, increasing water infiltration, enhancing soil quality and organic matter, and stimulating nitrogen cycling. The soil impacted by earthworm activity, including burrows, casts, and middens, is termed the drilosphere. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of earthworms on soil microbial community composition in the drilosphere at different landscape slope positions. Soil cores (50 cm depth) were extracted from three landscape locations (top, middle, and bottom slope positions) on a sloping aspect of a no-till wheat farm. Soil was sampled at the bottom of the soil core from inside multiple earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris</

SUBMITTER: Schlatter DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6611406 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature