Elucidating the role of earthworms on the fate of fertilizer N with synthetic and organic fertilizer application

作者：Hao Rong, Yupeng Wu, Hong J. Di, Yunfeng Chen, Weiguo Cheng, Ronggui Hu, Wenfeng Tan · 发表于：Geoderma · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.117106 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology、Phosphorus and nutrient management

• Effect of earthworms ( Amynthas corticis ) on fertilizer N fate varies with the type of fertilizer. • Earthworms primarily facilitate plant uptake of chemical fertilizer N in the first season. • Earthworms slightly increase the loss of chemical fertilizer N to the environment. • Earthworms enhance plant uptake of organic fertilizer N throughout the entire experiment. • Earthworms reduced the percentage of organic fertilizer N lost to the environment. Earthworms’ activities not only increase soil nitrogen (N) uptake by crops but also lead to N losses to environment. However, it remains unclear whether earthworms’ impact on the fate of fertilizer N differs based on the type of fertilizer application. Therefore, the present pot experiment examined the transformation and fate of two types of 15 N-labeled fertilizer (synthetic fertilizer urea and organic fertilizer compost applied at rate of 400 mg N/pot) with and without earthworms ( Amynthas corticis ) in a soil-lettuce system over three seasons of cultivation. Results showed that earthworms increased the fresh biomass of lettuce in all three seasons, regardless of the type of fertilizer used. However, the effect of earthworms on fertilizer N uptake varied depending on the type of fertilizer. With earthworms present, lettuce took up an additional 20.97 mg/pot of synthetic fertilizer N in the first season, which sharply decreased to 2.72 mg/pot and 4.63 mg/pot in the second and third seasons, respectively. In contrast, the upta...