Earthworms have a profound impact on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties. Structural soils are used in highly urbanized environments, such as street tree planters in city centers. In this soil microcosm experiment we are testing the impacts of earthworms Lumbricus terrestris on compacted structural soil. This experiment is a full-factorial with 2 earthworms treatments, 2 compaction treatments, and 2 litter addition treatments. The experiment has six blocks which are to be incrementally, destructively sampled over the course of 112 days. In addition, one block will be used for periodic in-situ measurement of surface C efflux and N leaching. Response variables for destructive sampling include: microbial biomass, fungi to bacteria ratio, earthworm biomass, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, pH, electrical conductivity, moisture content, bulk density, porosity, etc. This research was presented at the ISA 2009 meeting in Providence, RI and is submitted for publication to the Urban Ecosystems.

SMEC - Soil Microcosms, Earthworms, and Compaction (2008-2009)

Weighing earthworms (left), describing the earthworm microcosms (middle), and collecting leachates from the microcosms (right).

CLICK HERE for the Urban Ecosystems manuscript for the SMEC project.