Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Soil invaders.
The earthworm is a kind of ecosystem engineer: its activity has major structural
consequences. Nutrition circulates faster and primary production increases when worms remix
the material in the soil. But if the ecosystem is not suitable for this activity, the consequences can
be devastating. Field vegetation disappears almost entirely in the deciduous forests of the north-
ern United States (
lower image
) when European earthworms invade the soil. The upper image
shows a normal forest without worms
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