Wageningen University and Research Centre, Institute of Ecological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Sci Total Environ. 2010 Mar 15;408(8):1759-69. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.12.046. Epub 2010 Feb 6.
This paper reviews the role of earthworms in the early colonisation of contaminated soils as well as sediment and waste deposits, which are worm-free because of anthropogenic activities such as open-cast mining, soil sterilisation, consistent pollution or remediation of contaminated soil. Earthworms live in close interaction with their soil environment and are able to change it considerably by their burrowing and litter comminuting behaviour. While earthworms have been studied extensively, several questions still remain unanswered such as: What are the characteristics of successful early colonisers? Do they function well in dispersal, individual establishment or population growth? Do the negative environmental conditions in these kinds of anthropogenic soils hamper colonization or are these colonizers relatively resistant to it? To what extent does colonization change the characteristics of the colonized substrate? In short, do earthworms impact the soil? In this paper, the characteristics that make earthworms successful colonisers are briefly described as well as which species are the most successful and under what circumstances, and what do earthworms contribute to the total process of succession. We propose that it is not so much eco-type or r-K strategy that govern success and succession of earthworm colonisation but rather environmental flexibility not only towards pH, desiccation, and temperature but also towards contaminants such as heavy metals. Moreover, the formation of an organic litter layer, in close connection with re-vegetation of the area, is essential for establishing earthworm populations, which, at first, are mainly superficially and shallow active species. The burrowing and organic matter digesting activity of these earthworms changes the upper soil to a well mixed humus layer suitable for deep burrowing earthworm species.
本文综述了蚯蚓在受污染土壤以及由于人为活动（如露天采矿、土壤消毒、持续污染或污染土壤修复）而无蚯蚓的沉积物和废物沉积物中的早期定殖作用。蚯蚓与土壤环境密切相互作用，通过其挖掘和凋落物粉碎行为，可以显著改变土壤环境。尽管蚯蚓已经被广泛研究，但仍有几个问题尚未得到解答，例如：成功的早期定殖者有哪些特征？它们在扩散、个体建立或种群增长方面表现如何？这些人为土壤中的负面环境条件是否阻碍了定殖，或者这些定殖者相对具有抗逆性？定殖在多大程度上改变了定殖基质的特征？简而言之，蚯蚓会影响土壤吗？本文简要描述了使蚯蚓成为成功定殖者的特征，以及哪些物种最成功，以及在什么情况下，蚯蚓对演替的总过程有何贡献。我们认为，决定蚯蚓定殖成功和演替的不是生态型或 r-K 策略，而是对 pH 值、干燥和温度以及重金属等污染物的环境灵活性。此外，有机凋落物层的形成与该地区的植被恢复密切相关，这对建立蚯蚓种群至关重要，最初，蚯蚓种群主要是表面和浅层活动物种。这些蚯蚓的挖掘和有机物消化活动将上层土壤变成适合深掘蚯蚓物种的混合腐殖质层。
