生物多样性 ›› 2007, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (2): 142-153.  DOI: 10.1360/biodiv.060294

所属专题: 最后的前沿--土壤生物多样性 土壤生物与土壤健康

• 论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

蚯蚓在生态系统中的作用

张卫信1,2*, 陈迪马1,2, 赵灿灿1,2   

  1. 1 (中国科学院华南植物园生态研究所, 广州 510650)
    2 (中国科学院研究生院, 北京 100049)
  • 出版日期:2007-03-20 发布日期:2007-03-20

Functions of earthworm in ecosystem

Weixin Zhang1,2*, Dima Chen1,2, Cancan Zhao1,2   

  1. 1 Institute of Ecology, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650
    2 Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Online:2007-03-20 Published:2007-03-20

摘要: 蚯蚓能够对许多决定土壤肥力的过程产生重要影响, 被称为“生态系统工程师”。它通过取食、消化、排泄和掘穴等活动在其体内外形成众多的反应圈, 从而对生态系统的生物、化学和物理过程产生影响。蚯蚓在生态系统中既是消费者、分解者, 又是调节者, 它在生态系统中的功能具体表现在: (1) 对土壤中有机质分解和养分循环等关键过程的影响; (2) 对土壤理化性质的影响; (3) 与植物、微生物及其他动物的相互作用。蚯蚓活动及其在生态系统中的功能受蚯蚓生态类群、种群大小、植被、母岩、气候、时间尺度以及土地利用历史的综合控制。蚯蚓外来种入侵与生态系统的关系以及蚯蚓对全球变化的响应和影响是两个值得关注的问题。土壤本身的复杂性, 蚯蚓自然历史和生物地理学知识的缺乏, 野外控制蚯蚓群落方法的滞后等都限制了蚯蚓生态学的发展。其他新技术如研究养分循环的碳氮同位素分析和揭示土壤微结构的图像分析等技术的应用是蚯蚓生态功能研究的迫切需要。

AbstractAs one of the key soil invertebrates, earthworms can greatly impact soil processes, and thus was named as “ecosystem engineer”. Earthworm activities such as feeding, digestion, excretion, and burrowing, facilitate the formation of various drilosphere in their guts or soils around, through which they alter the biological, chemical and physical processes of the ecosystem. Earthworms act as consumer, decomposer and modulator in ecosystem. The ecological functions of earthworm include: (1) effects on key soil ecosystem processes such as decomposition of soil organic matters and nutrient cycling; (2) effects on soil chemical and physical properties; and (3) interaction with plants, microorganisms and other animals. Earthworm activities and their functions in ecosystem are determined by various factors such as ecological groups of earthworms, population size, vegetation, parent materials of soil, climate, time scale, and history of soil utilization. The development of earthworm ecology was constrained by the complex feature of soil, the scarce knowledge of natural history and biogeography of earthworms, and the low efficiency of approaches in field manipulation of earthworm community. We suggest that new technologies such as the C and N isotope technique for nu-trient cycling and the image analysis approaches for soil micro-structure should be applied on earthworm ecological research in order to better understand the functions of earthworms.