Effects of increased UV-B on weeds and big worms in a farmland ecological system

Since the 1970's stratospheric zone attenuation liable for surface UV radiation enhancement has been among the ever-increasing concerns of global climatologists. In recent years, numerous efforts have been undertaken at home and abroad to investigate the effect of enhanced surface UV-B on crops' growth, development and yield formation, achieving a lot of significant fruits and concurrently on field ecosystems. As we know, most of the experiments in the past were conducted in laboratories, including a short-term response on an individual-plant basis. This condition differs conspicuously from yield experiments at the level of an ecosystem with regard to its long-range response. Specifically the degree to which the UV radiation influences non-crop species, which leads to the distortion of the response to UV-B enhancement of crop's population and its ecosystem ¹. As a result, it is necessary to carry out long-range field experiments at an ecosystem's level ¹. This paper aims at the impacts of intensified UV-B upon weeds and large soil worms (i.e., microanimals) in an ecosystem of growing wheat, corn (maize) and spinach together with preliminary investigation of the mechanisms.