水保所知识产出(1956---)知识库

Soil degradation restricts the development of agriculture, and the degree of soil deg-
radation is related to land use type, and efficient evaluation methods are helpful for
the timely implementation of remedial measures to ensure soil sustainability. Earth-
worms are directly affected by the deterioration of soil properties during the degra-
dation process. The feasibility of using earthworms to assess soil degradation,
however, still needs to be verified. In our Loess Plateau study, earthworm biomass,
density, and diversity (Shannon-Wiener, species richness, and Pielou's evenness)
were investigated under nine different land use types (natural woodland, shrubland
and grassland; planted woodland, shrubland and grassland; and cropland, orchard,
abandoned land) and we analyzed their relationships with soil degradation. Our
results showed earthworm biomass, density, and diversity associated with a low
degree of degradation were significantly higher than those associated with a high
degree of degradation. Earthworms can comprehensively characterize the physico-
chemical properties and biological characteristics of soils under different land use
types. Linear correlations showed a significant relationship between the soil degrada-
tion index and the earthworm indices, indicating that the latter could be used to
effectively evaluate and represent the degree of degradation of soils on the Loess
Plateau over a certain degradation range. Nevertheless, this evaluation method
requires further validation before wider use.