Utilization of microbial abundance and diversity as indicators of the origin of soil aggregates produced by earthworms

This study aimed at testing the capability of microbial community structure and abundance to be used as bioindicators of the origin of earthworm cast aggregates. Compact surface casts produced by Amynthas khami and surrounding aggregates lacking visible signs of biological activity (control) were left to disaggregate by natural rainfall and separated into four size classes (5-2, 2-0.5, 0.5-0.25 and <0.25 mm). The genetic structure and the abundance of the bacterial and fungal communities were characterized using B- and F-ARISA fingerprinting approach and quantitative PCR directly from DNA extracted from soil. Bacteria and to a lesser extent fungi were more abundant in casts than in control …