Collembola laterally move biochar particles

PLoS One. 2019 Nov 1;14(11):e0224179. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224179. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Biochar is being discussed as a soil amendment to improve soil fertility and mitigate climate change. While biochar interactions with soil microbial biota have been frequently studied, interactions with soil mesofauna are understudied. We here present an experiment in which we tested if the collembolan Folsomia candida I) can transport biochar particles, II) if yes, how far the particles are distributed within 10 days, and III) if it shows a preference among biochars made from different feedstocks, i.e. pine wood, pine bark and spelt husks. In general, biochar particles based on pine bark and pine wood were consistently distributed significantly more than those made of spelt husks, but all types were transported more than 4cm within 10 days. Additionally, we provide evidence that biochar particles can become readily attached to the cuticle of collembolans and hence be transported, potentially even over large distances. Our study shows that the soil mesofauna can indeed act as a vector for the transport of biochar particles and show clear preferences depending on the respective feedstock, which would need to be studied in more detail in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arthropods / metabolism*
  • Charcoal / metabolism*
  • Pinus sylvestris
  • Soil
  • Soil Microbiology

Substances

  • Soil
  • biochar
  • Charcoal

Grants and funding

We thank Freie Universität Berlin for financial support. We acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Potsdam. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.