Read Time: 4 minutes

The importance of earthworms in maintaining a healthy soil ecosystem

The Hidden World Below

Soil Health

Soil is a profoundly complex and interconnected living ecosystem. Resting beneath our feet are billions of microorganisms working in symbiosis. Within this underground universe, all creatures and microbes have a role, but one has a particularly critical job. These creatures decompose the discarded and incorporate the leftover residue of nature, all the while tunneling and boring to aerate and loosen soil structure. Some call them shredders, nightcrawlers, or ecosystem engineers; but to you, they are likely known by another name: earthworms.

While many may consider them inconsequential, earthworms play a vital role not only in prairies and forests, but also in gardens, lawns, and farmland throughout the globe. These invertebrates work hard to contribute to their environment, often providing an indication of good soil health. Earthworms are important because they help restore soil nutrients, improve soil structure, allow water and air to enter the soil more freely, conserve energy, and boost biodiversity.

 

How Earthworms Benefit the Soil

Swipe or Tap the Arrows to Uncover the World of Earthworms
Click the Arrows to Uncover the World of Earthworms
Keeping Soil Loose
Creating Nutrients From Waste
Connecting Plants with Nutrients
Creating More Biodiversity

As they burrow into the soil, earthworms make it easier for plants (or crops) to take root and grow. This natural movement can improve soil health by allowing water and air to permeate without using machines powered by fossil fuels, like tractors. These sub-soil navigators build the tunnels and paths that lead to healthier soils, plants and environments.

Earthworms help put the organic matter back into the soil by ingesting decaying plant and root residues for nutrition and recycling them into nutrients and soil carbon. This process can supplement, or even reduce the need for energy-intensive fertilizers.

The burrows created by earthworms serve as natural pathways for water, air and fertilizer. Through these worm-hole canals, plants find and take in nutrients quickly and more efficiently.

While moving through the soil, earthworms convert decaying residue and raw, in-soil nutrients into forms plants can easily access and absorb.

Inside the gut of earthworms, you’ll find millions of beneficial microbes. Once released, bacteria help fill the soil with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

Earthworms can encourage a more diverse population of soil microbes. Maintaining beneficial microbes, as well as bacteria, fungi and other organisms, is critical to soil conservation. Earthworms also serve as a key link in the food chain, providing a source of food, mostly consumed by birds.

Life Beneath the Surface

Earthworms are one of the key contributors to the soil ecosystem. Billions of organisms work together to form both the literal and figurative foundation of this planet. Every single life form on Earth is deeply intertwined with and dependent on the soil. As modern agriculture continues to progress—conserving and protecting this limited and precious natural resource is essential.

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Life Beneath the Surface

Earthworms are one of the key contributors to the soil ecosystem. Billions of organisms work together to form both the literal and figurative foundation of this planet. Every single life form on Earth is deeply intertwined with and dependent on the soil. As modern agriculture continues to progress—conserving and protecting this limited and precious natural resource is essential.

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Leaving Soil Undisturbed

After harvest and before planting the next crop, growers are increasingly foregoing and reducing soil tillage. By allowing leftover plant residues to naturally decompose, earthworms and beneficial bacteria can for example, recycle cornhusks, chaff from grains and other plant matter by reincorporating nutrients back into the soil. This process of decomposition and recycling maintains topsoil—the precious, nutrient-dense layer critical to productive farming.

Rebuilding the Soil

During the off-season, many farmers plant crops like legumes, ryegrass and radishes creating a protective layer for the soil. This practice of “cover cropping” allows a richer diet for earthworms, insects, and microorganisms, providing them the necessary habitat to reproduce and protect the existing soil ecosystem.

Modern agriculture strives to help complement the rhythms of Mother Nature. The leading minds of this industry are finding the best solutions are not limited to laboratories or modern technology. When it comes to using fewer natural resources, we begin with a deep respect and knowledge of the land, water, and sky. The more we know about our planet, the more those working in modern agriculture have the opportunity to protect it.

 

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