Earthworms
This reading profile brings together 6 source-linked articles that reference earthworms.
Explore Fauna’s source-checked field guides and research articles covering earthworms, or search the species catalog below for individual species profiles.Source-linked reading
- Field guideHow earthworms shape soilEarthworms are ecosystem engineers because they move soil while feeding and tunneling. Their channels and casts create new physical structures and microbial hotspots, but the ecological result depends strongly on species and place.
- Field guideWatching fireflies responsiblyFireflies flash to find mates, which means the very lights and crowds that visitors bring can drown out their signals. Watching responsibly—shielding light, treading carefully, and keeping habitats dark—lets you enjoy one of nature's great summer displays without harming the beetles whose numbers are already under pressure.
- Field guideWhy hedgehogs are decliningWestern European hedgehogs have declined sharply enough to be listed as Near Threatened on Europe's regional Red List. The causes are interlinked—habitat loss and fragmentation, road deaths, tidy pesticide-heavy gardens, and fewer of the invertebrates they eat—but many pull in the same direction, so joined-up, wildlife-friendly gardens can genuinely help.
- Field guideDecomposition and nutrient cyclingAnimals fragment and consume litter, while fungi, bacteria, and other microbes use enzymes to break complex molecules down. Some carbon enters decomposer biomass or soil and some is respired; nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements can be immobilized, transformed, released, transported, and taken up again.
- Field guideFood webs and trophic levelsA food chain is one pathway through a feeding network; a food web joins many such pathways. Trophic levels summarize distance from primary production, but omnivores, detritus, changing diets, and cross-habitat subsidies make real organisms harder to place than a simple pyramid suggests.
- Field guideKeystone species and ecosystem engineersA keystone species has effects on community structure that are large relative to its abundance. An ecosystem engineer changes the physical environment in ways that alter resources for other organisms. The concepts overlap in beavers, but they are not synonyms.