Earthworms act as biochemical reactors to convert labile plant compounds into stabilized soil microbial necromass

摘要

Cumulative heterotrophic respiration from earthworm-affected and non-affected soils during the experimental period. These values are indicative of mineralised soil organic C and were calculated by back-titrating NaOH not reacted with evolving CO in the closed incubation jars and subsequent normalisation to organic C contents. The figure displays arithmetic means and standard errors from three replicates. Differences between earthworm-affected and non-affected soils were not statistically significant.