RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Global distribution of earthworm diversity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 587394
DO 10.1101/587394
A1 Helen R P Phillips
A1 Carlos A Guerra
A1 Marie L. C. Bartz
A1 Maria J. I. Briones
A1 George Brown
A1 Olga Ferlian
A1 Konstantin B. Gongalsky
A1 Julia Krebs
A1 Alberto Orgiazzi
A1 Benjamin Schwarz
A1 Elizabeth M. Bach
A1 Joanne Bennett
A1 Ulrich Brose
A1 Thibaud Decaëns
A1 Franciska T. De Vries
A1 Birgitta König-Ries
A1 Michel Loreau
A1 Jérôme Mathieu
A1 Christian Mulder
A1 Wim H. van der Putten
A1 Kelly S. Ramirez
A1 Matthias C. Rillig
A1 David Russell
A1 Michiel Rutgers
A1 Madhav P. Thakur
A1 Diana H. Wall
A1 David Wardle
A1 Data Providers (see bulk upload sheet)
A1 Erin Cameron
A1 Nico Eisenhauer
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/09/587394.abstract
AB Soil organisms provide crucial ecosystem services that support human life. However, little is known about their diversity, distribution, and the threats affecting them. Here, we compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from over 7000 sites in 56 countries to predict patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass. We identify the environmental drivers shaping these patterns. Local species richness and abundance typically peaked at higher latitudes, while biomass peaked in the tropics, patterns opposite to those observed in aboveground organisms. Similar to many aboveground taxa, climate variables were more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat cover. These findings highlight that, while the environmental drivers are similar, conservation strategies to conserve aboveground biodiversity might not be appropriate for earthworm diversity, especially in a changing climate.One sentence summary Global patterns of earthworm diversity, abundance and biomass are driven by climate but patterns differ from many aboveground taxa.