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Conventional tillage decreases the abundance and biomass of earthworms and alters their community structure in a global meta‐analysis
Open accessAbstract
The adoption of less intensive soil cultivation practices is expected to increase earthworm populations and their contributions to ecosystem functioning. However, conflicting results have been reported on the effects of tillage intensity on earthworm populations, attributed in narrative reviews to site‐dependent differences in soil properties, climatic conditions and agronomic operations (e.g. fertilization, residue management and chemical crop protection). We present a quantitative review based on a global meta‐analysis, using paired observations from 165 publications performed over 65 years (1950–2016) across 40 countries on five continents, to elucidate this long‐standing unresolved issue. Results showed that disturbing the soil less (e.g. no‐tillage and conservation agriculture [CA]) significantly increased earthworm abundance (mean increase of 137% and 127%, respectively) and biomass (196% and 101%, respectively) compared to when the soil is inverted by conventional ploughing. Earthworm population responses were more pronounced when the soil had been under reduced tillage (RT) for a long time (>10 years), in warm temperate zones with fine‐textured soils, and in soils with higher clay contents (>35%) and low pH (<5.5). Furthermore, retaining organic harvest residues amplified this positive response to RT, whereas the use of the herbicide glyphosate did not significantly affect earthworm population responses to RT. Additional meta‐analyses confirmed that epigeic and, more importantly, the bigger‐sized anecic earthworms were the most sensitive ecological groups to conventional tillage. In particular, the deep burrower Lumbricus terrestris exhibited the strongest positive response to RT, increasing in abundance by 124% more than the overall mean of all 13 species analysed individually. The restoration of these two important ecological groups of earthworms and their burrowing, feeding and casting activities under various forms of RT will ensure the provision of ecosystem functions such as soil structure maintenance and nutrient cycling by “nature's plough.”
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“This is indicated by our results, where less intensive tillage, for example, reduced the disturbance of the earthworm environment28,29.”
From Farming practices to enhance biodiversity across biomes: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [29]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Briones, M. J. I., & Schmidt, O.
- Affiliations
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (GB)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Briones, María Jesús I.
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-05-31
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 4396-4419
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2611958349
- Cited by
- 375
- References
- 161
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 6
- FWCI
- 3.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NERC Open Research Archive (Natural Environment Research Council) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
- Universidad Nacional del Litoral
- Bioforsk
- Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
- South Australian Research and Development Institute
- Norges Miljø- og Biovitenskapelige Universitet
- Universitat de Lleida
- Thünen-Institut
- Agroscope
- Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
- Wageningen University and Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant and soil sciences
- Keywords
- earthworms, conventional tillage, reduced tillage, no-tillage, conservation agriculture, earthworm abundance, earthworm biomass, Lumbricus terrestris, anecic earthworms, epigeic earthworms, soil disturbance, glyphosate, soil properties, soil fauna, soil ecosystem services
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, Animals, Feeding Behavior, Oligochaeta, Population Dynamics, Soil, Soil Microbiology, Ecosystem, Biomass
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