The fate of catechol in soil as affected by earthworms and clay

Abstract

The effect of endogeic earthworms ( Octolasion tyrtaeum) and the availability of clay (Montmorillonite) on the mobilization and stabilization of uniformly 14C-labelled catechol mixed into arable and forest soil was investigated in a short- and a long-term microcosm experiment. By using arable and forest soil the effect of earthworms and clay in soils differing in the saturation of the mineral matrix with organic matter was investigated. In the short-term experiment microcosms were destructively sampled when the soil had been transformed into casts. In the long-term experiment earthworm casts produced during 7 days and non-processed soil were incubated for three further months. Production of CO 2 and 14CO 2 were measured at regular intervals. Accumulation of 14C in humic fractions (DOM, fulvic acids, humic acids and humin) of the casts and the non-processed soil and incorporation of 14C into earthworm tissue were determined. Incorporation of 14C into earthworm tissue was low, with 0.1 and 0.44% recovered in the short- and long-term experiment, respectively, suggesting that endogeic earthworms preferentially assimilate non-phenolic soil carbon. Cumulative production of CO 2-C was significantly increased in casts produced from the arable soil, but lower in casts produced from the forest soil; generally, the production of CO 2-C was higher in forest than in arable soil. Both soils differed in the pattern of 14CO 2-C production; initially it was higher in the forest soil than in the arable soil, whereas later the opposite was true. Octolasion tyrtaeum did not affect 14CO 2-C production in the forest soil, but increased it in the arable soil early in the experiment; clay counteracted this effect. Clay and O. tyrtaeum did not affect integration of 14C into humic fractions of the forest soil. In contrast, in the arable soil O. tyrtaeum increased the amount of 14C in the labile fractions, whereas clay increased it in the humin fraction. The results indicate that endogeic earthworms increase microbial activity and thus mineralization of phenolic compounds, whereas clay decreases it presumably by binding phenolic compounds to clay particles when passing through the earthworm gut. Endogeic earthworms and clay are only of minor importance for the fate of catechol in soils with high organic matter, clay and microbial biomass concentrations, but in contrast affect the fate of phenolic compounds in low clay soils.