Earthworms’ benign image belies a dark secret. They are actually fierce competitors with other invertebrates
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThat much is well known, not least from research conducted in northern North America. Here, worms were wiped out during the last ice age, which ended 12,000 years ago. They started returning, in the form of European interlopers, only a few centuries in the past. What have not been investigated much until now are the consequences of this subterranean carnage for surface-dwelling critters.
Altogether, the collectors picked up 13,037 individual arthropods—and discrepancies between plots were quickly obvious. Those with abundant earthworms were depauperised of arthropods compared with ones where worms were rare. Plots with the most worms in them had 61% fewer individual arthropods, 18% fewer arthropod species and a 27% diminution in total arthropod biomass, compared with those with the fewest.
Why predators did well is unclear. Some, perhaps, were eating worms directly. Others may have taken advantage of the stripping of cover for their prey caused by worms pulling the leaf-litter underground for later consumption.
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