LandWorms

Impact of land use and management on earthworm communities

The biogeography (i.e., discipline of biology that studies the present and past distribution patterns of biological diversity and their underlying environmental and historical causes) as well as the anthropogenic and natural factors impacting earthworm communities (composition, structure and functional traits) remain largely unknown. Yet, earthworms are ecosystem engineers involved in key soil functions and associated ecosystem services.

siteweb LandWorms

Objectifs

LANDWORM aims to quantify the current and past (less than 50 years) effects of land use and management on earthworm communities, considering the heterogeneity of soil and climatic contexts at the national scale, in order to

understand and predict earthworm community assembly
identify favorable land management practices.

LANDWORM also aims to produce reference and threshold values to contribute to the bio-monitoring of the French territory. The data collected by this working group covers agricultural, forestry, semi-natural and artificial land uses and the main land management practices associated with these uses..