Geoderma最新文献

{"title":"Letter-to-the-Editor: Unfrozen water availability controls temperature-dependence of biogeochemical processes in frozen soils","authors":"Fereidoun Rezanezhad","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117307","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117307","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117307"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143876773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advancing remote sensing of biocrusts with drone imagery and machine learning","authors":"Jana Stewart ,&nbsp;Roxane J. Francis ,&nbsp;David J. Eldridge ,&nbsp;Richard T. Kingsford ,&nbsp;Nathali Machado de Lima","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117315","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117315","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biocrusts are a major ground cover type in drylands, driving ecosystem function and contributing to biodiversity at large scales. However, their small size and similar colour to background soils and vegetation make them challenging to monitor with remote sensing. We developed a simple and accurate field method for large scale surveys of biocrust, using drone imagery and machine learning, guided by visual ground survey data. We compared the accuracy of three different camera sensors- RGB, multispectral, and thermal. We used XGBoost predictive modelling to classify groundcover into six classes including three biocrust community morphology types (bare ground, cyanobacteria-lichen biocrust, crustose and foliose lichen biocrust, moss biocrust, dead vegetation, live vegetation). Visual ground-based survey data and fine-scale photography were used to ground truth drone imagery to develop training datasets. Modelled outputs demonstrated that Multispectral was the best drone camera sensor type, with the highest accuracy of 97.0 %, with NDVI the most important band for the model. When we applied the model to 50 m² plots to validate its predictions, we had similar results to visual classification from field surveys and fine-scale photographs, successfully separating biocrust from bare ground. Our relatively simple method can be applied to biocrusts using readily available, low-cost technology. Considerable opportunities exist for using this approach to provide landscape-level biocrust assessment, using remote sensing, leading to improved restoration and management of drylands for conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117315"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Phosphorus enrichment mediates the responses of plant lignin and microbial necromass accumulation to nitrogen addition in subalpine forest soil","authors":"Ruyi Luo ,&nbsp;Yakov Kuzyakov ,&nbsp;Ji Chen ,&nbsp;Wei Qiang ,&nbsp;Yan Zhang ,&nbsp;Xueyong Pang","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117317","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117317","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>It is widely recognized that increased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs play critical roles in plant carbon (C) inputs and microbial growth and activity, thereby profoundly affecting the composition and dynamics of soil organic C (SOC). However, whether and how plant- and microbial-derived C and their associated SOC fractions respond to the interaction between N and P additions remain unclear. Here, an 8-year N and P addition experiment was conducted in a subalpine forest on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We used amino sugars and lignin phenols as biomarkers for quantifying microbial necromass and plant lignin components, respectively, and separated SOC into distinct functional C pools, such as particulate organic C (POC) and mineral-associated organic C (MAOC). The results revealed that N addition decreased the retention of lignin phenols in SOC without P input, whereas no significant changes occurred under N addition with P input. In contrast, N addition increased the microbial necromass contribution to SOC under no P input, whereas N addition effects were absent under P input. Regarding N addition alone, the decrease in plant lignin was likely associated with lower lignin inputs from the root litter, while the increase in microbial necromass was largely attributed to suppressed necromass decomposition via a reduction in N-acquisition enzyme activity. Moreover, the POC and MAOC pools and their ratios to SOC were insensitive to N addition, regardless of P input. Collectively, our findings provide novel insights into the importance of P availability in mediating N addition-induced accumulation of plant lignin and microbial necromass in subalpine forest soil, highlighting the necessity of incorporating the interaction between N and P additions on plant- and microbial-derived components into terrestrial C cycling models to improve the prediction of SOC dynamics and storage under future nutrient enrichment scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117317"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing feature importance for forecasting soil moisture in subarctic regions using gridded historical and forecasted climate data","authors":"Mojtaba Saboori,&nbsp;Kedar Surendranath Ghag,&nbsp;Anandharuban Panchanathan,&nbsp;Ritesh Patro,&nbsp;Ali Torabi Haghighi","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Continuous monitoring of soil moisture (SM) is essential in precision agriculture for effective irrigation management. However, SM forecasting in subarctic environments remains relatively unexplored. In this study, we forecast SM at a 30-centimeter soil depth over a 7-day period using Random Forest (RF) model. Two scenarios were evaluated: (a) relying solely on historical data (HIST), and (b) using forecasted environmental data along with recent SM measurements to predict SM levels iteratively, integrating next-day forecasts with current SM data (FORENV). The input features included daily gridded climate data (air temperature-T_air, relative humidity-RH, wind speed-WS, precipitation-P, and reference evapotranspiration-ET0), soil-vegetation (SV) features (gridded soil temperature-T_soil and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index-NDVI) and lagged SM values. These data were gathered from six sites under different land covers in subarctic regions (Finland-Tyrnava) over approximately two growing seasons (July or August 2022–September 2023), yielding about 430 daily observations per site. The analysis showed that FORENV outperformed HIST for up to four days into the forecast horizon, highlighting the value of including forecasted variables for improved accuracy during these initial lead times. Longer lead times proved more site-dependent, influenced by the stability of historical SM correlations. Pearson correlation and RF-based stepwise forward feature selection revealed that using only lagged SM data, or combining it with SV features, yielded the most accurate forecasts. For instance, at t + 7 and across all case studies combined, models incorporating LaggedSM_SV achieved the lowest RMSE (0.019 m³.m⁻³) and highest R² (0.67), followed by All_inputs (RMSE: 0.022 m³.m⁻³, R²: 0.61), and LaggedSM (RMSE: 0.025 m³.m⁻³, R²: 0.46). Daily P and RH exhibited consistently low correlations with subsurface SM, likely due to near-saturated soil conditions in many subarctic sites that buffer infiltration and reduce immediate sensitivity to these parameters. Overall, our results demonstrate that robust SM forecasts can be achieved even with limited data, making this approach particularly valuable in subarctic regions with near-saturated soil conditions or other areas where climate and soil-vegetation data may be sparse.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117304"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Protist communities are correlated with abiotic soil factors, but not resources, prey, or predators along a subalpine secondary succession","authors":"Ajuan Zhang ,&nbsp;Anton M. Potapov ,&nbsp;Ruyi Luo ,&nbsp;Yan Zhang ,&nbsp;Wei Qiang ,&nbsp;Bing Liu ,&nbsp;Xueyong Pang","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117310","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Protists are pivotal components of soil micro-food webs, influencing microbial functioning and nutrient cycling. While abiotic soil factors consistently drive protist communities, the roles of bottom-up (resources) and top-down (predators) forces remain understudied. The lack of integrative studies on these drivers constrains our understanding of changes in protistan communities. To fill this gap, we investigated a subalpine succession (grassland, shrubland, secondary forest, primary forest) in southwestern China, using 18S rRNA gene sequencing to assess protist communities. We specifically tested how basal plant resources, food web components, and abiotic soil factors shape protist communities and their functional groups (phagotrophic, parasitic, phototrophic). The results showed that overall protist diversity decreased during secondary succession, being lowest in secondary birch forests. Abiotic soil factors, especially soil moisture, total phosphorus, and pH, were strongly correlated with protist community composition, while plant resources, prey, and predators showed weaker associations, except for parasitic protists, which were also associated with plant resources and invertebrate diversity. The community composition of phagotrophic and parasitic protists exhibited more pronounced changes along the succession compared to phototrophic protists. Our findings highlight the dominant role of abiotic soil factors in shaping protist communities, which may lead to a decoupling of above- (plant) and belowground (protist) diversity patterns. Moreover, higher trophic levels within protist communities showed greater sensitivity to succession, indicating functional restructuring in soil micro-food webs during ecosystem development. This integrative perspective enhances our understanding of soil protist communities, highlighting the interactions between abiotic and biotic factors that shape belowground ecosystems across environmental gradients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117310"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143868958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sources and fate of CO2 along the soil–aquifer–stream–atmosphere continuum (the Orgeval headwater catchment, France)","authors":"Josette Garnier ,&nbsp;Sophie Guillon ,&nbsp;Hocine Hénine ,&nbsp;Gilles Billen ,&nbsp;Nicolas Escoffier ,&nbsp;Benjamin Mercier ,&nbsp;Anun Martinez ,&nbsp;Jean-Marie Mouchel","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117297","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117297","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Few studies have examined CO₂ sources and pathways along the soil–aquifer–stream–atmosphere continuum. We measured the water concentration of dissolved CO₂, HCO₃^–, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), together with ancillary variables (pH, total alkalinity [TA], and major ions [Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, SO₄^2-, NO₃^–]), in piezometer transects and adjacent streams at a monthly interval over a 5-year period (2019–2023). Such a continuum was studied within a small catchment underlain by carbonate geology and subject to intensive agriculture.</div><div>On the basis of the values of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, SO₄^2-, and alkalinity in the upslope and downslope piezometers, we assumed that the more mineralized downslope water would characterize the slow groundwater flow component of the stream, while the less mineralized upslope water would reflect a fast sub-surface flow (surface runoff + agricultural drainage flow). These water flows components were calculated using the HYPE calibrated hydrological model.</div><div>Accounting for weathering reactions and using a mass balance of dissolved C fluxes, we found that the total alkalinity flux (as HCO₃^–) reaching the river (amounting to 29 Mmol yr⁻¹, i.e., 79 kgC ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) derived for about one third from soil CO₂ respiration, one third from carbonate dissolution induced by the reaction with CO₂, and one third from carbonate dissolution induced by the acidity generated by nitrification of reduced N fertilizers.</div><div>The groundwater CO₂ fluxes to the stream (13 Mmol y^-1, i.e., 36 kgC ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) were 2<!--> <!-->orders of magnitude lower than the total direct soil CO₂ flux emitted to the atmosphere. Most (at least 95 %).of the groundwater CO₂ fluxes was degassed once reaching the stream.</div><div>Dissolved organic carbon flux to the stream represented only ∼ 2 % of the total dissolved carbon flux to the stream; the input of dissolved CO₂ in rainfall to the soil–aquifer system amounted to less than 1 % of this total dissolved carbon flux to the stream.</div><div>The carbonate weathering induced by soil respired CO₂ amounted to ∼ 26<!--> <!-->kgC ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in the Avenelles sub-catchment, representing ∼ 0.5 ‰ yr⁻¹ of the total soil organic carbon stock. The alkalinity flux generated by this process might hence act as significant soil transient CO₂ sink, depending on the prevalence of downstream processes affecting the stream carbonate buffering and speciation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"458 ","pages":"Article 117297"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143868957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil fauna promote litter mixture effects on nitrogen release but not carbon or phosphorus during decomposition in a subtropical forest","authors":"Pengpeng Dou ,&nbsp;Dunmei Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding how litter diversity drives decomposition is critical for linking plant diversity to ecosystem functioning. We conducted a 460-day field decomposition experiment using litter mixtures (1–4 species) placed in both fauna-accessible and excluded litterbags in a subtropical forest. Both additive partitioning and trait-based approaches were used to investigate the effects of litter mixing on mass loss and the release of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Overall, the litter mixtures exhibited limited non-additive effects on litter mass loss and C release, with significant negative selection effects that offsetting the weak complementarity effects. In contrast, N release showed strong positive net diversity effects in fauna-accessible mixtures, driven by significant complementarity and selection effects. Soil fauna amplified the diversity effect on N release but had no effect on P, which displaying primarily additive dynamics. Functional identity (community-weighted mean of leaf toughness and thickness) predominantly predicted litter mass loss and C release, while functional diversity (Rao’s quadratic entropy of litter N concentration) and identity jointly governed litter N release in the presence of fauna. Our findings demonstrate decoupled mechanisms for C and nutrient cycling, where physical traits constrain mass loss and C release while synergistic litter diversity-soil fauna interactions enhance N mineralization, highlighting context-dependent diversity effects and underscoring the importance of integrating multi-element perspectives and faunal interactions to predict biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships in detrital systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 117312"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143867915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Divergent mechanisms driving microbial necromass in topsoil and subsoil along an altitudinal gradient on the Loess Plateau","authors":"Yuqian Li ,&nbsp;Xuyang Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaoming Mou ,&nbsp;Bin Jia ,&nbsp;Jie Lian ,&nbsp;Yayi Niu ,&nbsp;Xiangwen Gong ,&nbsp;Yuqiang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microbial necromass are one of the main sources of soil organic carbon (SOC) in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the characteristics of soil amino sugar accumulation and their contribution to the SOC pools across different altitudinal gradients and the influencing factors need to be further investigated. In this study, alpine grassland (AG), subalpine scrub (SS), alpine scrub (AS), and alpine meadow (AM) were selected along the altitudinal gradient in the Mt. Maxian. Soil amino sugars are used as biological markers for microbial necromass. Soil physical and chemical properties, microbial biomass, amino sugar content, and their contribution to SOC, and the driving factors of these changes were analyzed at the 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm soil layers. The results showed that: SOC, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) contents significantly increased along the altitude but decreased with soil depth. Soil microbial necromass increased linearly with altitude and the microbial necromass content was higher in the topsoil than in the subsoil. Total microbial necromass of surface and subsoil contributed 40.21 % and 39.96 % of SOC, respectively, and the contribution of fungal necromass (37.45 % and 37.14 %) was significantly higher than that of bacterial necromass (2.76 % and 2.82 %). Soil microbial biomass and soil ecological stoichiometry directly affected the accumulation of soil microbial necromass, and had different effects on fungal and bacterial necromass. Microbial biomass and soil ecological stoichiometric ratio dominated the C accumulation process of bacterial and fungal residues in topsoil. In subsoil, however, soil ecological stoichiometric ratio and climate are important factors influencing C accumulation of bacterial and fungal residues. The findings of this study have important implications for predicting soil C cycling under global climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 117311"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143867914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nitrogen fertilization-induced acidity and suitability of δ13C to study the dynamics of soil inorganic carbon in agroecosystems","authors":"Mostafa Abdollahpour ,&nbsp;Dennis Hollemann ,&nbsp;Leopold Sauheitl,&nbsp;Georg Guggenberger,&nbsp;Kazem Zamanian","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117309","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117309","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Neutralization of soil inorganic carbon (SIC), i.e., dissolution of carbonate minerals caused by N fertilization-induced acidity, is an ongoing reaction in agroecosystems that leads to significant contribution of SIC to soil CO₂ emission. Analyzing δ¹³C natural abundance of the emitted CO₂ is commonly used to quantify the contribution of SIC in total CO₂ emission. However, carbonates recrystallization in isotopic equilibrium with soil respiration can lead to miscalculation, where despite detecting δ¹³C signal from carbonates in the emitted CO₂, the SIC stock may not necessarily change. We tested the effects of ammonium sulfate, urea, chicken manure, liquid pig manure and no fertilization (i.e. control) on soil carbonates neutralization and the contribution of SIC in total CO₂ emission over a 21 day incubation experiment. The alkali trap method was used to measure the total CO₂ emission and the isotopic composition of carbon (C) in the emitted CO₂ from the soil. Liquid pig manure followed by ammonium sulfate apparently led to the highest cumulative SIC-originated CO₂ emissions, while chicken manure and urea showed equally the smallest amount. Nitrate can support the estimation of SIC-originated CO₂ emission when nitrification is the only source of soil acidification. Dissolved Ca²⁺ concentration was a more robust proxy than <span><math><mrow><msubsup><mrow><mi>N</mi><mi>O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow><mo>-</mo></msubsup></mrow></math></span> for quantification of SIC-originated CO₂ emission in our batch experiment, however, more evidences have to be collected before using Ca²⁺ as a proxy in open soil systems. Verification of the δ¹³C values by dissolved Ca²⁺ showed that the contribution of SIC to the total CO₂ emission is overestimated after organic N fertilization, whereas an underestimation in the contribution of SIC to the soil CO₂ emission was observed after inorganic N fertilization. In summary, the δ¹³C analysis could yield inaccurate results regarding the effects of N fertilization on the contribution of SIC in soil CO₂ emission which should be considered in the future studies. From an environmental point of view, it can be concluded that when the amounts of N, especially in ammonium form e.g. amino groups are relatively high in organic fertilizers as it was the case in liquid pig manure compared to inorganic fertilizers, organic and inorganic N fertilizers lead to comparable amounts of SIC loss. This should be considered in applying organic fertilizers as a sustainable strategy to slow down the rate of soil acidification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 117309"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143855180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reactive oxygen species generation in earthworm burrows and their impact in drilosphere organic carbon mineralization","authors":"Zheng Ni,&nbsp;Bin Jia,&nbsp;Yanpei Li,&nbsp;Junaid Latif,&nbsp;Yuntao Yuan,&nbsp;Fuhao Liu,&nbsp;Kai Li,&nbsp;Wenjun Jiang,&nbsp;Hanzhong Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The drilosphere is a hotspot of carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, yet the soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization within this zone associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) remains underexplored. Herein, we investigated the spatiotemporal variations of ROS in the drilosphere and evaluated their contributions to SOC mineralization. Fluorescence imaging revealed concentrated ROS hotspots within approximately 2.8 mm of soil surrounding earthworm (<em>Metaphire guillelmi</em>) burrows. Spatially, hydroxyl radicals (^•OH) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) contents in drilosphere soils were 2218.65 nmol kg⁻¹ and 309.03 μmol kg⁻¹, respectively, significantly higher than those in the background soil (883.92 nmol kg⁻¹ and 138.09 μmol kg⁻¹, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.01). Temporally, ^•OH and H₂O₂ contents increased in drilosphere during the first 14 days of incubation, but declined following the removal of earthworms. In contrast, ROS levels in background soils remained stable throughout the incubation period. Correlation analysis revealed that earthworm activity significantly influenced ROS dynamics by altering microbial diversity, soil pH, dissolved organic carbon, and the Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycle (r = 0.60–0.90, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). Among the ROS, ^•OH was an important contributor to SOC mineralization. Inhibiting ^•OH production decreased CO₂ emissions by 34.9 % and laccase activity by 21.6 %. The addition of exogenous ^•OH increased SOC mineralization rate from 25.76 to 50.36 μg C g⁻¹ soil d^-1 and laccase activity from 2.46 to 9.50 U g⁻¹, indicating that ^•OH stimulates CO₂ emissions by increasing enzyme activity. This study identifies earthworm burrows as hotspots for ROS production and provides detailed insights into their ecological role in SOC cycling.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12511,"journal":{"name":"Geoderma","volume":"457 ","pages":"Article 117301"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143855115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}