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. 2019 Oct 25;366(6464):480-485.
doi: 10.1126/science.aax4851.

Global distribution of earthworm diversity

Helen R P Phillips  1   2 Carlos A Guerra  3   4 Marie L C Bartz  5 Maria J I Briones  6 George Brown  7 Thomas W Crowther  8 Olga Ferlian  3   2 Konstantin B Gongalsky  9   10 Johan van den Hoogen  8 Julia Krebs  3   2 Alberto Orgiazzi  11 Devin Routh  8 Benjamin Schwarz  12 Elizabeth M Bach  13   14 Joanne Bennett  3   4 Ulrich Brose  3   15 Thibaud Decaëns  16 Birgitta König-Ries  3   17 Michel Loreau  18 Jérôme Mathieu  19 Christian Mulder  20 Wim H van der Putten  21   22 Kelly S Ramirez  21 Matthias C Rillig  23   24 David Russell  25 Michiel Rutgers  26 Madhav P Thakur  21 Franciska T de Vries  27 Diana H Wall  13   14 David A Wardle  28 Miwa Arai  29 Fredrick O Ayuke  30 Geoff H Baker  31 Robin Beauséjour  32 José C Bedano  33 Klaus Birkhofer  34 Eric Blanchart  35 Bernd Blossey  36 Thomas Bolger  37   38 Robert L Bradley  32 Mac A Callaham  39 Yvan Capowiez  40 Mark E Caulfield  41 Amy Choi  42 Felicity V Crotty  43   44 Andrea Dávalos  36   45 Darío J Diaz Cosin  46 Anahí Dominguez  33 Andrés Esteban Duhour  47 Nick van Eekeren  48 Christoph Emmerling  49 Liliana B Falco  50 Rosa Fernández  51 Steven J Fonte  52 Carlos Fragoso  53 André L C Franco  13 Martine Fugère  32 Abegail T Fusilero  54   55 Shaieste Gholami  56 Michael J Gundale  57 Mónica Gutiérrez López  46 Davorka K Hackenberger  58 Luis M Hernández  59 Takuo Hishi  60 Andrew R Holdsworth  61 Martin Holmstrup  62 Kristine N Hopfensperger  63 Esperanza Huerta Lwanga  64   65 Veikko Huhta  66 Tunsisa T Hurisso  52   67 Basil V Iannone 3rd  68 Madalina Iordache  69 Monika Joschko  70 Nobuhiro Kaneko  71 Radoslava Kanianska  72 Aidan M Keith  73 Courtland A Kelly  52 Maria L Kernecker  74 Jonatan Klaminder  75 Armand W Koné  76 Yahya Kooch  77 Sanna T Kukkonen  78 H Lalthanzara  79 Daniel R Lammel  24   80 Iurii M Lebedev  9   10 Yiqing Li  81 Juan B Jesus Lidon  46 Noa K Lincoln  82 Scott R Loss  83 Raphael Marichal  84 Radim Matula  85 Jan Hendrik Moos  86   87 Gerardo Moreno  88 Alejandro Morón-Ríos  89 Bart Muys  90 Johan Neirynck  91 Lindsey Norgrove  92 Marta Novo  46 Visa Nuutinen  93 Victoria Nuzzo  94 Mujeeb Rahman P  95 Johan Pansu  96   97 Shishir Paudel  83 Guénola Pérès  98 Lorenzo Pérez-Camacho  99 Raúl Piñeiro  100 Jean-François Ponge  101 Muhammad Imtiaz Rashid  102   103 Salvador Rebollo  99 Javier Rodeiro-Iglesias  104 Miguel Á Rodríguez  105 Alexander M Roth  106   107 Guillaume X Rousseau  59   108 Anna Rozen  109 Ehsan Sayad  56 Loes van Schaik  110 Bryant C Scharenbroch  111 Michael Schirrmann  112 Olaf Schmidt  38   113 Boris Schröder  23   114 Julia Seeber  115   116 Maxim P Shashkov  117   118 Jaswinder Singh  119 Sandy M Smith  120 Michael Steinwandter  116 José A Talavera  121 Dolores Trigo  46 Jiro Tsukamoto  122 Anne W de Valença  123 Steven J Vanek  52 Iñigo Virto  124 Adrian A Wackett  125 Matthew W Warren  126 Nathaniel H Wehr  127 Joann K Whalen  128 Michael B Wironen  129 Volkmar Wolters  130 Irina V Zenkova  131 Weixin Zhang  132 Erin K Cameron  133   134 Nico Eisenhauer  3   2
Affiliations

Global distribution of earthworm diversity

Helen R P Phillips et al. Science. .

Erratum in

Abstract

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Global distribution of earthworm diversity.
(A) Black dots represent the center of a “study” used in at least one of the three models (species richness, total abundance, and total biomass). The size of the dot corresponds to the number of sites within the study. Opaqueness is for visualization purposes only. (B to D) The globally predicted values of (B) species richness (within site), (C) total abundance, and (D) total biomass. Yellow indicates high diversity; dark purple, low diversity. Gray areas are habitat cover categories that lacked samples.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. The number of unique species within each latitudinal zone, when the number of sites within each zone is comparable.
The width of the bar shows the latitude range of the sites/zones.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. The importance of the six variable themes from the three biodiversity models.
Rows show the results of each model (top, species richness; middle, abundance; bottom, biomass). Columns represent the variable themes that are present in the simplified biodiversity model. The most important variable group has the largest circle. Within each row, the circle size of the other variable themes is proportional to the relative change in importance. The circle size should only be compared within a row.

Comment in

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