Soil microbial communities are strongly affected by the ecosystem engineer like plants or earthworms. Although the microbiome in the rhizosphere and drilosphere are well studied, impacts on microbiome in bulk soil are not fully understood. Plant types/earthworm presence interactions are important to evaluate the efficiency of planting to recover soil microbiome.
The objectives of the study were to: (1) know how soil microbial diversity is influenced by plant species, (2) know how plant-earthworm interaction affects the microbial diversity.
We conducted a pot-scale experiment using Sorghum, Rhodesgrass, and Clover, with/without earthworms (Eisenia japonica). Then we analyzed the bulk soil for their fungal and bacterial diversity.
The presence of earthworms tends to increase Shannon diversity in both fungi and bacteria. The presence of earthworm positively impacted fungal and bacterial evenness in all the pots. Regarding the interaction between plants and earthworm presence, the earthworm positively influenced fungal richness in pots with Sorghum and Rhodesgrass.
The presence of earthworms affects the fungal and bacterial microbiota in bulk soil, and it might work as a disturbance in the soil. As a result, the presence of earthworm might contribute to the increase of Alpha diversity of both fungi and bacteria in bulk soil.