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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 7179

F. Urbasek and J. Chalupsky; Effects of artificial acidification and liming on biomass and on the activity of digestive enzymes in Enchytraeidae (Oligochaeta): Results of an ongoing study. Biol.Fertil.Soils 14:67-70, 1992

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The effects of stimulated acid rain and acidification cation combined with liming on enzymatic activities in the gut of the enchytraied Fridericia sp. were studied under laboratory conditions. Simulated mild (pH 4.4) and strong (pH 3.1) acid rain was applied throughout a 52-day experiment. Liming, at rates of 1500 and 4000 kg CaCO3 powder ha-1, was applied once on the 27th day of acid rain. After 52 days, the treatment effects were determined by analysing changes in the fresh body weight of enchytraeids and the activities of amylase (E.C. 3.2.1.1), xylanase (E.C. 3.2.1.8), trehalase (E.C. 3.2.1.28) and C1-cellulase (E.C. 3.2.1.91) in the gut. The effects were significant in only a few instances. After acidification, xylanase and trehalase activities decreased. The changes in fresh body biomass were not significant. Amylase and cellulase activities increased slightly, possibly because the acidification had a stimulatory effect on soil amylolytic and cellulolytic microorganisms. After liming, both xylanase activity and the enchytraeid body biomass decreased. This was the only marked evidence on a negative effect on the enchytraeids. The high amylase, trehalase and cellulase activities that were observed might have been caused by intensive digestion of dead acidophilous microflora.