Global distribution of earthworm diversity
Creators: name: Phillips, Helen R. P.
name: Guerra, Carlos A.
name: Bartz, Marie L. C.
name: Briones, Maria J. I.
name: Brown, George
name: Crowther, Thomas W.
name: Ferlian, Olga
name: Gongalsky, Konstantin B.
name: Van Den Hoogen, Johan
name: Krebs, Julia
name: Orgiazzi, Alberto
name: Routh, Devin
name: Schwarz, Benjamin
name: Bach, Elizabeth M.
name: Bennett, Joanne
name: Brose, Ulrich
name: Decaëns, Thibaud
name: König-Ries, Birgitta
name: Loreau, Michel
name: Mathieu, Jérôme
name: Mulder, Christian
name: Van Der Putten, Wim H.
name: Ramirez, Kelly S.
name: Rillig, Matthias C.
name: Russell, David
name: Rutgers, Michiel
name: Thakur, Madhav P.
name: De Vries, Franciska T.
name: Wall, Diana H.
name: Wardle, David A.
name: Arai, Miwa
name: Ayuke, Fredrick O.
name: Baker, Geoff H.
name: Beauséjour, Robin
name: Bedano, José C.
name: Birkhofer, Klaus
name: Blanchart, Eric
name: Blossey, Bernd
name: Bolger, Thomas
name: Bradley, Robert L.
name: Callaham, Mac A.
name: Capowiez, Yvan
name: Caulfield, Mark E.
name: Choi, Amy
name: Crotty, Felicity V.
name: Dávalos, Andrea
name: Cosin, Darío J. Diaz
name: Dominguez, Anahí
name: Duhour, Andrés Esteban
name: Van Eekeren, Nick
name: Emmerling, Christoph
name: Falco, Liliana B.
name: Fernández, Rosa
name: Fonte, Steven J.
name: Fragoso, Carlos
name: Franco, André L. C.
name: Fugère, Martine
name: Fusilero, Abegail T.
name: Gholami, Shaieste
name: Gundale, Michael J.
name: López, Mónica Gutiérrez
name: Hackenberger, Davorka K.
name: Hernández, Luis M.
name: Hishi, Takuo
name: Holdsworth, Andrew R.
name: Holmstrup, Martin
name: Hopfensperger, Kristine N.
name: Lwanga, Esperanza Huerta
name: Huhta, Veikko
name: Hurisso, Tunsisa T.
name: Iannone, Basil V.
name: Iordache, Madalina
name: Joschko, Monika
name: Kaneko, Nobuhiro
name: Kanianska, Radoslava
name: Keith, Aidan M.
name: Kelly, Courtland A.
name: Kernecker, Maria L.
name: Klaminder, Jonatan
name: Koné, Armand W.
name: Kooch, Yahya
name: Kukkonen, Sanna T.
name: Lalthanzara, H.
name: Lammel, Daniel R.
name: Lebedev, Iurii M.
name: Li, Yiqing
name: Lidon, Juan B. Jesus
name: Lincoln, Noa K.
name: Loss, Scott R.
name: Marichal, Raphael
name: Matula, Radim
name: Moos, Jan Hendrik
name: Moreno, Gerardo
name: Morón-Ríos, Alejandro
name: Muys, Bart
name: Neirynck, Johan
name: Norgrove, Lindsey
name: Novo, Marta
name: Nuutinen, Visa
name: Nuzzo, Victoria
name: Rahman P, Mujeeb
name: Pansu, Johan
name: Paudel, Shishir
name: Pérès, Guénola
name: Pérez-Camacho, Lorenzo
name: Piñeiro, Raúl
name: Ponge, Jean-François
name: Rashid, Muhammad Imtiaz
name: Rebollo, Salvador
name: Rodeiro-Iglesias, Javier
name: Rodríguez, Miguel Á.
name: Roth, Alexander M.
name: Rousseau, Guillaume X.
name: Rozen, Anna
name: Sayad, Ehsan
name: Van Schaik, Loes
name: Scharenbroch, Bryant C.
name: Schirrmann, Michael
name: Schmidt, Olaf
name: Schröder, Boris
name: Seeber, Julia
name: Shashkov, Maxim P.
name: Singh, Jaswinder
name: Smith, Sandy M.
name: Steinwandter, Michael
name: Talavera, José A.
name: Trigo, Dolores
name: Tsukamoto, Jiro
name: De Valença, Anne W.
name: Vanek, Steven J.
name: Virto, Iñigo
name: Wackett, Adrian A.
name: Warren, Matthew W.
name: Wehr, Nathaniel H.
name: Whalen, Joann K.
name: Wironen, Michael B.
name: Wolters, Volkmar
name: Zenkova, Irina V.
name: Zhang, Weixin
name: Cameron, Erin K.
name: Eisenhauer, Nico
Publisher: name: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Year: 2019

description: Soil organisms, including earthworms, are a key component of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about their diversity, their distribution, and the threats affecting them. We compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from 6928 sites in 57 countries as a basis for predicting patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass. We found that local species richness and abundance typically peaked at higher latitudes, displaying patterns opposite to those observed in aboveground organisms. However, high species dissimilarity across tropical locations may cause diversity across the entirety of the tropics to be higher than elsewhere. Climate variables were found to be more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat cover. These findings suggest that climate change may have serious implications for earthworm communities and for the functions they provide.