Utilization of earthworms and termites for the restoration of ecosystem functioning
Abstract
Soil engineers, such as earthworms and termites, are key organisms in soil functioning. They are involved in many ecological processes and play a central role in numerous ecosystem services. This review discusses the management of earthworm and termite activity for the restoration of ecosystems. We review methods to promote soil engineer activity either directly through field inoculation or stimulation or indirectly through the utilization of vermicompost. Examples of their use for the restoration of acid, compacted or crusted, polluted, and eroded soils are also discussed. Finally, we summarize the major obstacles hampering the utilization of soil engineer activity for the restoration of ecosystems, consider new research topics that need further development and highlight the need to consider the interactions between the functions and services influenced by soil engineers.
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Inoculating soil animals into degraded soils, or stimulating them through indirect measures such as compost, enhances important soil physical and chemical properties, especially related to restoring land for crop production.
“Inoculating such types of soil animals into degraded soils, or stimulating them through indirect measures (such as compost), has been found to enhance important soil physical and chemical properties, especially related to restoring land for crop production (121).”
From Restoring Degraded Lands (2021) · cites this paper as [121]
Cites
Soil invertebrates and ecosystem services
Lavelle, P., Decaëns, T., Aubert, M., Barot, S., Blouin, M., Bureau, F., Margerie, P., Mora, P., & Rossi, J.-P. (2006) · European Journal of Soil Biology · doi:10.1016/j.ejsobi.2006.10.002 · Cited by 1,606 · see citing works
Scullion, J., & Malik, A. (2000) · Soil Biology and Biochemistry · doi:10.1016/s0038-0717(99)00142-x · Cited by 156 · see citing works
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Arneth, A., Olsson, L., Cowie, A., Erb, K.-H., Hurlbert, M., Kurz, W. A., Mirzabaev, A., & Rounsevell, M. D. A. (2021) · Annual Review of Environment and Resources · doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-054809 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“Discussions about restoration or renovation of ecosystems focus on vegetation type and habitat structure, assuming that whole species assemblages would follow and with it a return to healthy ecosystem functioning, especially where dominant natural species are replanted or natural regrowth takes place (120, 121).”
Background
- Authors
- Jouquet, P., Blanchart, E., & Capowiez, Y.
- Affiliations
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (FR)
- ORCID
- Capowiez, Yvan
- Venue
- Applied Soil Ecology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-01
- Volume
- 73
- Pages
- 34-40
- ISSN
- 0929-1393 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2054221291
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 7.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Soil Ecology (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Ecology and biodiversity studies
- Keywords
- earthworms, termites, ecological restoration, vermicompost, field inoculation, soil compaction, soil crusting, acid soils, contaminated soil, soil erosion, ecosystem services, soil functions
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Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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