Effects of soil macro- and meso-fauna on the decomposition of cattle and horse dung pats in a semi-arid steppe

doi:10.17520/biods.2022575

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Soil fauna as the key component of terrestrial ecosystems, playing an important role in decomposition of animal dung, mineralization of organic matter and turnover of soil nutrients. Many studies have been done on the soil fauna’s effects on plant litter’s decomposition. Still, less information is available on their impact on the decomposition of animal dung.
Methods: Here we conducted a field experiment in a temperate semi-arid steppe ecosystem to investigate the effect of the different soil fauna groups with different body sizes on the decomposition of horse and cattle dung pats on the soil surface over a one-year period. The experiment had five treatments: CK, soil only, no dung nor soil fauna; T0, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 0.425 mm holes (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna); T1, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 1 mm holes (excluding dung beetles); T2, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 2 mm holes (excluding tunneler dung beetle); T3, exposed dung (with no exclusion of soil fauna).
Results: We found that (1) compared with dung only (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna) treatment (T0), the presence of soil fauna (T1, T2 and T3) did not enhance the dry mass loss of livestock dung during the first 60 days of the experiment; in contrast, in the presence of all soil fauna (T3) significantly increased the dry mass loss of cattle dung but decreased that of horse dung at the end of the experiment (at day 360). (2) Soil fauna also enhanced the decline rate of carbon and nitrogen content in dung during the first 60 days of the experiment. (3) Dung addition increased the soil microbial respiration, and the increase was most obvious in the presence of soil fauna (T3) on days 15 and 30 of the experiment. (4) Compared to the soil with no dung (CK), the soil with horse dung had higher contents of soil available N, soil organic carbon and soil moisture, and the contents were higher in the presence of soil fauna (T2 and T3); whereas the soil with cattle dung had no changes.
Conclusion: We conclude that the feeding and activities of dung beetle in the early stage of dung decomposition alter the physicochemical properties of dung, which indirectly affect the role of soil biota in the decomposition in the later stage.

Key words: soil fauna, dung decomposition, nutrient release, microbial activity, geochemistry

Jianwei Cheng, Yadong Wang, Yanan Wang, Ying Li, Ying Guo, Zheng Bai, Xinmin Liu, Frank Yonghong Li. Effects of soil macro- and meso-fauna on the decomposition of cattle and horse dung pats in a semi-arid steppe[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2022, 30(12): 22575.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2022575

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2022/V30/I12/22575

Figures/Tables 7

Table 1 Experimental design of different dung arthropod treatments

处理 Treatments	粪干重 Dry dung mass (g)	隔离网孔隙大小The size of the mesh hole	隔离土壤动物类型 The type of soil fauna excluded
CK	0	无隔离网 No wire-mesh-cage	无 No
T0	40	0.425 mm	粪居型和掘洞型粪金龟和中型土壤动物 Dweller and tunneler dung beetle and soil meso-fauna
T1	40	1 mm	粪居型和掘洞型粪金龟 Dweller and tunneler dung beetle
T2	40	2 mm	掘洞型粪金龟 Tunneler dung beetle
T3	40	无隔离网 No wire-mesh-cage	无 No

Fig. 1 Monthly precipitation (bars) and mean air temperature (line) in the experimental period (July 2018-June 2019)

Fig. 2 Effects of soil fauna on the mass loss of animal dung over a 1-year period. (a) Horse-dry; (b) Cattle-dry; (c) Horse-wet; (d) cattle-wet. The bar graph shows the change in the mass loss of animal dung under different soil fauna treatments at the end of decomposition period. T0, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 0.425 mm holes (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna); T1, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 1 mm holes (excluding dung beetles); T2, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 2 mm holes (excluding tunneler dung beetle); T3, Exposed dung (with no exclusion of soil fauna). The significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 are denoted using * and different lowercase letters (one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests for post hoc comparisons).

Table 2 Results (F-values) of a repeated-measures ANOVA on the effects of dung type (D), soil fauna (S) and time of measurement (T) on dry (DM) and wet (WM) dung mass loss, dung carbon (DC) and nitrogen (DN) contents, the mesocosm microbial respiration (MR) and soil microbial respiration (SR)

影响因素 Factors	干粪质量损失 DM		湿粪质量损失 WM		粪碳含量 DC		粪氮含量 DN		隔离系统微生物呼吸MR		土壤微生物呼吸SR
影响因素 Factors	df	F	df	F	df	F	df	F	df	F	df	F
畜粪类型 D	1	2.01	1	161.23^***	1	183.33^***	1	0.14	1	20.11^***	1	23.65^***
土壤动物 S	3	1.59	3	3.04^*	3	30.27^***	3	43.52^***	3	1.64	4	13.26^***
分解时间 T	5	50.55^***	5	218.78^***	3	38.96^***	3	17.70^***	8	200.21^***	4	108.19^***
畜粪类型 × 土壤动物 D × S	3	3.58^*	3	3.82^**	3	1.49	3	5.46^**	3	1.25	4	0.43
畜粪类型 × 分解时间 D × T	5	4.69^***	5	20.77^***	3	2.82^*	3	0.50	8	4.06^***	4	3.05^*
土壤动物 × 分解时间 S × T	15	0.55	15	4.49^***	9	2.59^*	9	2.74^**	24	0.82	16	5.23^***
畜粪类型 × 土壤动物 × 分解时间 D × S × T	15	0.94	15	0.93	9	1.82	9	0.87	24	0.53	16	1.38

Fig. 3 Effects of soil fauna on the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents of horse dung (a, c) and cattle dung (b, d) over a 1-year period. T0, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 0.425 mm holes (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna); T1, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 1 mm holes (excluding dung beetles); T2, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 2 mm holes (excluding tunneler dung beetle); T3, Exposed dung (with no exclusion of soil fauna). The significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 are denoted using * (one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests for post hoc comparisons).

Fig. 4 Microbial respiration (μmol·m?2·s?1) from the mesocosms that contain dung and soil (a: horse, b: cattle) and soil only [after horse dung (c) and cattle dung (d) is removed] under different soil fauna treatments over a 1-year period. CK, Soil only, no dung nor soil fauna; T0, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 0.425 mm holes (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna); T1, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 1 mm holes (excluding dung beetles); T2, Dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 2 mm holes (excluding tunneler dung beetle); T3, Exposed dung (with no exclusion of soil fauna). The significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 are denoted using * (one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests for post hoc comparisons).

Fig. 5 Effects of soil fauna on soil properties at day 30 of the experimental period. CK, Soil only, no dung nor soil fauna; T0, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 0.425 mm holes (excluding dung beetles and soil meso-fauna); T1, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 1 mm holes (excluding dung beetles); T2, dung pat covered with a wire-mesh-cage of 2 mm holes (excluding tunneler dung beetle); T3, exposed dung (with no exclusion of soil fauna). The significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 are denoted using different lower letters (one-way ANOVA with Duncan’s multiple-range tests for post hoc comparisons). Different uppercase letters indicate significant difference between cattle dung and horse dung at P < 0.05, after using independent sample t test for post hoc comparisons.

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