Perspectives on the Study of Earthworms: The Global Impact of Earthworms on Soil Health and Plant Ecology

Earthworms are often considered to be the emblem of soil health due to the large impact agricultural management can have on their wellbeing and habitat, leading to changes in earthworm abundance and diversity. Earthworms also actively improve soil health through soil formation, nutrient cycling and soil aeration. In fact, earthworms have a wider influence than just soil health, affecting seed germination and distribution, alongside microbial stimulation and water infiltration. Earthworms are ecosystem engineers and interact with the soil and the wider ecology through a diversity of interrelationships; promoting crop growth through enhancing microbial activity, cast production and mobilising plant-available nutrients. Thus, they have the potential to increase aboveground biodiversity as well as beneficially changing the habitat belowground.