title: Biochar-macrofauna interplay: Searching for new bioindicators.
abstract: Biochar incorporation in agricultural soils has been proposed as a climate change mitigation strategy and has proved to substantially increase crop productivity via physical, chemical and biological mechanisms. The changes induced in soil properties are known to have a direct impact on soil ecosystem with consequences for soil biota community that, in turn, can influence biochar aging in soil. Despite several studies investigated in the interplay between biochar and soil microbiology, there is a clear lack of information on groups that live in the most superficial ground layers: soil meso and macro fauna. These groups are of great importance if we consider that biochar application should ideally be located in the soil's surface layer (0-30 cm). Our study is the first attempt to investigate the interactions between biochar soil amendments and aboveground soil macro-meso fauna in a field crop. This was made setting-up a randomized-block experiment on a processing tomato crop in northern Italy, using three different biochar types and periodically monitoring soil parameters and fauna abundances along the crop growing cycle in summer 2013. Results show that the impact of biochar application on soil fauna as a whole is small when compared to that of agricultural management, suggesting that this amendment does not have short-term ecological interferences. Nevertheless, ants exhibited variations in abundances and distribution connected to properties of amended soils such as temperature, pH and humidity, proving that they can be effectively used as a target group in the study of interactions between biochar and soil biota.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, 43124 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: cristina.castracani@unipr.it.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Castracani
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), Via G. Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: a.maienza@ibimet.cnr.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maienza
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, 43124 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: donato.grasso@unipr.it.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Grasso
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), Via G. Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: l.genesio@ibimet.cnr.it.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Genesio
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, 43124 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: alessio.malcevschi@unipr.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malcevschi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), Via G. Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: f.miglietta@ibimet.cnr.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Miglietta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biometeorology, National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), Via G. Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: f.vaccari@ibimet.cnr.it.
authors.forename: F P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Vaccari
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, 43124 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: alessandra.mori@unipr.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D058448:Biota; D002606:Charcoal; D057231:Climate Change; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D007558:Italy; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; C540010:biochar; D002606:Charcoal
keywords: Ants; Arthropods; Biochar; Carbon sequestration; Field experiment; Soil fauna