title: Earthworm diet related to soil organic matter dynamics through13C measurements.
abstract: The ability of earthworms to assimilate soil organic pools of different ages was investigated in field conditions through natural13C labelling. Provided that13C natural abundance of earthworm tissues is determined by their diet, the assimilation of soil organic matter by earthworms was estimated by measuring13C/12C ratio of tissues of earthworms sampled in soils containing organic pools with differing13C/12C ratios. Earthworms were collected in two locations where the vegetation shifted from a C3 to a C4 type (France), or from a C4 to a C3 type (Ivory Coast) 3 to 20 years ago. The results show that irrespective of their ecology (litter or soil-feeding), earthworms mainly feed on recent soil organic pools and assimilate soil organic matter with the same age distribution as the overall decomposers in the soil.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie (CNRS UA 258), Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, F-75230, Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biogéochimie Isotopique (CNRS UA 196-INRA), Université Paris VI, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75252, Paris Cedex 05, France.|Station de Science du Sol, INRA, Route de Saint-Cyr, F-78026, Versailles Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balesdent
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biogéochimie Isotopique (CNRS UA 196-INRA), Université Paris VI, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75252, Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mariotti
keywords: 13C labelling; Diet; Earthworm; Soil organic matter dynamics