Global worming: massive invasion of North America by earthworms revealed

Mathieu, Jérôme; Reynolds, John W.; Fragoso, Carlos; Hadly, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1101/2022.06.27.497722

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The GBIF provided most of the records (54,883 records of 69 species) followed by Mathieu et al. 2022 (25,592 records, 77 species) and Edaphobase (13,054 records, 53 species). The occurrence records were spatially thinned to adjust for sampling bias caused by varying sampling density and resolution (e.g., Kramer‐Schadt et al., 2013; Steen et al., 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Earthworm distributions are driven by multiple factors, including soil moisture, climate, chemical and physical soil properties, and topographic factors (Desie et al., 2020; Mathieu et al., 2022b; Mueller et al., 2016; Phillips et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2019). Soil moisture is related to the availability of water through precipitation and can be expressed as aridity (proportion of precipitation to evapotranspiration).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of climate on the distribution and conservation of commonly observed European earthworms

Zeiss,

Briones,

Mathieu

et al. 2024

Conservation Biology

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Belowground biodiversity distribution does not necessarily reflect aboveground biodiversity patterns, but maps of soil biodiversity remain scarce because of limited data availability. Earthworms belong to the most thoroughly studied soil organisms, and ‐ in their role as ecosystem engineers ‐ have a significant impact on ecosystem functioning. We used Species Distribution Modeling (SDMs) and available datasets to map the spatial distribution of commonly observed, i.e., frequently recorded, earthworm species (Annelida, Oligochaeta) across Europe under current and future climate. We showed that earthworm species richness is high in central western and low in north‐eastern Europe. This pattern was found to be mainly driven by annual mean temperature and precipitation seasonality, but importance of predictor variables on species occurrences varied among targeted species. Not only geographical ranges of the majority of the earthworm species are predicted to shift to eastern Europe and partly decrease under future climate scenarios, but also were only poorly covered by different protected areas, such as National Parks. Instead, more than 80% of the earthworm range was on average not protected at all (mean = 82.6%, SD 0.04). Overall, our results emphasize the urgency of considering especially vulnerable earthworm species, as well as other soil organisms, in the design of nature conservation measures.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of climate on the distribution and conservation of commonly observed European earthworms

Zeiss,

Briones,

Mathieu

et al. 2024

Conservation Biology

Self Cite

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Ideas and perspectives: Alleviation of functional limitations by soil organisms is key to climate feedbacks from arctic soils

Blume‐Werry¹,

Klaminder²,

Krab³

et al. 2023

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Arctic soils play an important role in Earth's climate system, as they store large amounts of carbon that, if released, could strongly increase greenhouse gas levels in our atmosphere. Most research to date has focused on how the turnover of organic matter in these soils is regulated by abiotic factors, and few studies have considered the potential role of biotic regulation. However, arctic soils are currently missing important groups of soil organisms, and here, we highlight recent empirical evidence that soil organisms' presence or absence is key to understanding and predicting future climate feedbacks from arctic soils. We propose that the arrival of soil organisms into arctic soils may introduce “novel functions”, resulting in increased rates of, for example, nitrification, methanogenesis, litter fragmentation, or bioturbation, and thereby alleviate functional limitations of the current community. This alleviation can greatly enhance decomposition rates, in parity with effects predicted due to increasing temperatures. We base this argument on a series of emerging experimental evidence suggesting that the dispersal of until-then absent micro-, meso-, and macroorganisms (i.e. from bacteria to earthworms) into new regions and newly thawed soil layers can drastically affect soil functioning. These new observations make us question the current view that neglects organism-driven “alleviation effects” when predicting future feedbacks between arctic ecosystems and our planet's climate. We therefore advocate for an updated framework in which soil biota and the functions by which they influence ecosystem processes become essential when predicting the fate of soil functions in warming arctic ecosystems.

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Global worming: massive invasion of North America by earthworms revealed

Cited by 2 publications

References 70 publications

Effects of climate on the distribution and conservation of commonly observed European earthworms

Effects of climate on the distribution and conservation of commonly observed European earthworms

Ideas and perspectives: Alleviation of functional limitations by soil organisms is key to climate feedbacks from arctic soils

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