Nano(micro)plastic mobility in soil: Metallic additives and Sr isotopes as potential tracers.

Metal contaminants were found in a soil amended with a compost produced from household waste that included plastic debris. A strong correlation between the microplastics (MPs) distribution and the metal concentrations in the soil profile. Metals in the highest concentrations corresponded to the most significant plastic additives.

Earthworms do not increase greenhouse gas emissions (CO and NO) in an ecotron experiment simulating a three-crop rotation system.

Earthworms are known to stimulate soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the majority of previous studies have used simplified model systems or lacked continuous high-frequency measurements. To address this, we conducted a 2-year study using large lysimeters (5 m area and 1.5 m soil depth) in an ecotron facility, continuously measuring ecosystem-level CO, NO, and HO fluxes.

Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties.

Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties.

A dataset for sustainability assessment of agroecological practices in a crop-livestock farming system.

This article presents data designed by European researchers who performed a literature review and interpreted the results to determine impact factors of many agroecological practices on a wide variety of sustainability indicators. The impact factors are represented in a matrix that connects practices to indicators. The indicators are related to environmental, economic and social sustainability of a typical European integrated crop-livestock farm.

Effect of Miscanthus × giganteus ash on survival, biomass, reproduction and avoidance behaviour of the endogeic earthworm Aporrectodea caliginosa.

To achieve the EU's targets for reducing energy production from fossil fuels, the use of energy crops, such as Miscanthus × giganteus, is increasing resulting in a corresponding increase in waste ash from incineration. The chemical properties of Miscanthus ash (e.g.

Marine macroalgae as food for earthworms: growth and selection experiments across ecotypes.

Historically, subsistence farmers around the Atlantic coast of NW Europe utilized marine algae as a fertilizer in agroecosystems, a practice that continued in small areas and is now considered to have real potential for re-establishing sustainable food production systems on marginal soils. Earthworms form a significant component of soil fauna, and their ecosystem services are well-documented. Therefore, palatability of marine organic amendments to faunal detritivores of terrestrial systems is of interest.

Global distribution of earthworm diversity.

Soil organisms, including earthworms, are a key component of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about their diversity, their distribution, and the threats affecting them. We compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from 6928 sites in 57 countries as a basis for predicting patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass.

Urban and industrial land uses have a higher soil biological quality than expected from physicochemical quality.

Despite their importance both in soil functioning and as soil indicators, the response of microarthropods to various land uses is still unclear. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of land use on microarthropod diversity and determine whether a soil's biological quality follows the same physicochemical quality-based gradient from forest, agriculture-grassland, agriculture-arable land, vineyards, urban vegetable gardens to urban, industrial, traffic, mining and military areas. A database compiling the characteristics of 758 communities has been established.

Application of a biomarker battery for the evaluation of the sublethal effects of pollutants in the earthworm Eisenia andrei.

We applied a battery of biomarkers in the earthworm Eisenia andrei to assess the pollutant-induced stress syndrome. Earthworms were exposed to sublethal concentrations of copper (1-10 microM) and benzo[a]pyrene (0.01-10 microM) as models of inorganic and organic pollutants for 1, 3 and 7 days.