How earthworms thrive and drive silicate rock weathering in an artificial organo-mineral system

作者：Tullia Calogiuri, Iris Janssens, Alix Vidal, Jan Willem van Groenigen, Tim Verdonck, Thomas Corbett, Jens Hartmann, Anna Neubeck, Harun Niron, Reinaldy Poetra, Lukas Rieder, Thomas Servotte, Abhijeet Singh, Michiel Van Tendeloo, Siegfried E. Vlaeminck, Sara Vicca, Mathilde Hagens · 发表于：Applied Geochemistry · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.apgeochem.2024.106271 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology、Marine and environmental studies、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology

To slow the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, Enhanced Silicate Weathering is emerging as a potentially significant Carbon Dioxide Removal technology. However, the biotic controls on rock weathering are not well understood, particularly for key soil faunal groups such as earthworms. Earthworms have shown to possibly enhance weathering, highlighting their potential to be introduced in controlled or engineered settings, such as reactors, to increase carbon sequestration. Here, we determined the potential for earthworms to thrive and to increase weathering rates in an artificial organo-mineral system simulating a bioreactor. We used two earthworm species ( Aporrectodea caliginosa [Savigny] and Allolobophora chlorotica [Savigny]) at four densities (10, 20, 25 and 30 earthworms kg −1 organo-mineral mixture), four silicate rock types (two basanites, dunite and diabase) of two to three grain sizes (d50 between 0.026 and 1.536 mm), two sources of organic materials (straw and co-digestate), two amounts of biochar (0 and 100 g kg −1 organo-mineral mixture) and/or enzyme additions (laccase, urease and carbonic anhydrase at 20, 177 and 1955 units kg −1 organo-mineral mixture, respectively), three water irrigation rates (125, 250 and 375 mL day −1 kg −1 organo-mineral mixture) and three watering frequencies (one, two and five times day −1 ). The experiment was conducted in eight rounds, each one lasting eight weeks, yielding data for a total of 323 experimental units. We ...