94
E. Vavoulidou et al.
indicators and not only plants benefit from the service of the about 3500 Annelida
species members, the class Oligochaeta (Annelida: Clitellata), which inter alia help
lowering plant fungi intoxication, specifically caused by Fusarium species during
cereals production, meaning less use of fungicides (Chap. 6; [19, 25, 60, 63, 83, 87]).
Earthworms detected in pre-cambrian, odovician sediments are presumably the most
ancient macro-fauna soil dwellers, which provide N concerned services of economic
value, but suffer under farming intensification, soil compacting devices, and a climate
change dependent increased drought and flooding frequency [88–91]. Better models
for prediction of soil carbon, nitrogen cycling processes are required, which enable
evaluation of soil fauna services, which are the following: (a) enriching by preying
and an efficient assimilating of prey the dissolved soil organic matter (DOM) pool
with C, N, and P, (b) C/N ratio narrowing of the ingested material to a plant N uptake
appropriate 10.4 C/N ratio, and (c) closing the C, N cycling gaps by distributing
fertile faeces [90, 92–96].
2 Soil Dwelling Worms and Nitrogen Cycling
The soil ingesting earthworms (Lumbricidae; Annelida, Oligochaeta) are ‘flagships’ among the soil invertebrate groups as worms, isopods, snails, myriapods,
mites, springtails (Table 1). They break down large soil and leaf litter particles,
help improving as digging ants and moles the soil water conductivity, the aeration
of the pore space, and promote in cooperation with the soil microflora, -fauna N
cycling and root growth [97–99]. Earthworms increase the litter surface for microbial attacks, intermix organic residues with soil, deposit glycoprotein, polysaccharides, clay enrich casts in the burrows, and when a hectare (ha) farmland receives
100 tons manure per year the soil profiles co-shaping earthworm abundance is high
[22, 100–103]. During bioturbation the soil structure physically rearranges and the
C/N ratio of dead plant material, transported by earthworms in the burrows narrows
from averaged 13 to 10.4 and is then appropriate for plant N uptake. In temperate
climate zones earthworms via ingesting plant and soil material, narrow the C/N ratio,
may annually deposit 25 to 40 tons faeces per ha, and support the farmland with 28 kg
mineralized N/ha [104]. Thereby burrowing rearranges the soil pore system, the water
holding capacity and in consequence the mineralizing activity is greater than in the
surrounding soil. Because of a benefitting microflora, soil organisms such as springtails, mites and insect larvae earthworms (Fig. 2) became key indicator organisms for
detecting soil compaction (Table 2) and chemical, pesticide side-effects [105]. Earthworms are important dietary items for above and belowground living beetles, millipedes, shrews, moles, hedgehogs and omnivorous bird species (blackbirds, thrushes,
buzzards, storks and herons). In spite of the profound role the aboveground and
soil faunal biodiversity are playing their environmental role is still widely neglected
the abundance continually declines, although related studies are initiated [2–4]. In
E. Vavoulidou et al.
indicators and not only plants benefit from the service of the about 3500 Annelida
species members, the class Oligochaeta (Annelida: Clitellata), which inter alia help
lowering plant fungi intoxication, specifically caused by Fusarium species during
cereals production, meaning less use of fungicides (Chap. 6; [19, 25, 60, 63, 83, 87]).
Earthworms detected in pre-cambrian, odovician sediments are presumably the most
ancient macro-fauna soil dwellers, which provide N concerned services of economic
value, but suffer under farming intensification, soil compacting devices, and a climate
change dependent increased drought and flooding frequency [88–91]. Better models
for prediction of soil carbon, nitrogen cycling processes are required, which enable
evaluation of soil fauna services, which are the following: (a) enriching by preying
and an efficient assimilating of prey the dissolved soil organic matter (DOM) pool
with C, N, and P, (b) C/N ratio narrowing of the ingested material to a plant N uptake
appropriate 10.4 C/N ratio, and (c) closing the C, N cycling gaps by distributing
fertile faeces [90, 92–96].
2 Soil Dwelling Worms and Nitrogen Cycling
The soil ingesting earthworms (Lumbricidae; Annelida, Oligochaeta) are ‘flagships’ among the soil invertebrate groups as worms, isopods, snails, myriapods,
mites, springtails (Table 1). They break down large soil and leaf litter particles,
help improving as digging ants and moles the soil water conductivity, the aeration
of the pore space, and promote in cooperation with the soil microflora, -fauna N
cycling and root growth [97–99]. Earthworms increase the litter surface for microbial attacks, intermix organic residues with soil, deposit glycoprotein, polysaccharides, clay enrich casts in the burrows, and when a hectare (ha) farmland receives
100 tons manure per year the soil profiles co-shaping earthworm abundance is high
[22, 100–103]. During bioturbation the soil structure physically rearranges and the
C/N ratio of dead plant material, transported by earthworms in the burrows narrows
from averaged 13 to 10.4 and is then appropriate for plant N uptake. In temperate
climate zones earthworms via ingesting plant and soil material, narrow the C/N ratio,
may annually deposit 25 to 40 tons faeces per ha, and support the farmland with 28 kg
mineralized N/ha [104]. Thereby burrowing rearranges the soil pore system, the water
holding capacity and in consequence the mineralizing activity is greater than in the
surrounding soil. Because of a benefitting microflora, soil organisms such as springtails, mites and insect larvae earthworms (Fig. 2) became key indicator organisms for
detecting soil compaction (Table 2) and chemical, pesticide side-effects [105]. Earthworms are important dietary items for above and belowground living beetles, millipedes, shrews, moles, hedgehogs and omnivorous bird species (blackbirds, thrushes,
buzzards, storks and herons). In spite of the profound role the aboveground and
soil faunal biodiversity are playing their environmental role is still widely neglected
the abundance continually declines, although related studies are initiated [2–4]. In