Ecosystem services provision by earthworms in agroecosystem

Abstract

Earthworms have many roles in agricultural ecosystems. They provide various ecosystem services. Identifying these services can help to preserve them. This paper presents the first study to demonstrate that ecosystem services provision by earthworms in agroecosystems has important implications for the design of sustainable agricultural systems, as it can help create more efficient systems for high ecosystem service provision. We investigated the services of earthworms in agroecosystems through a systematic literature review. For this purpose, scientific databases such as Science Direct and Scopus were used to gather publications from 2000 to 2024, which were then examined and categorized. In this study, all earthworm-related services, functions, and benefits in agroecosystems were gathered and categorized using the proposed framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA). Direct and indirect benefits from earthworms are known as ecosystem services. This term was popularized by MEA. We developed a modified framework based on MEA, and then divided the services/benefits into four categories. The results showed that 73.91% of services belonged to regulating services and 13.04% of them included supporting services. Among regulating services, soil-related services were more important. We also observed 11 services/benefits that are indirectly obtained from earthworm services . One of the important services of earthworms is to remove pollutants from the environment. Findings show that earthworms have a valuable role in reducing the negative impact of microplastics. Also, the results showed that agricultural activities can affect the provision of ecosystem services by earthworms. Most of the agricultural activities in the conventional farming systems have negative effects on the provision of services by earthworms. Our results showed that most of the earthworm services are related to the environment and soil components of agroecosystem.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Discover Environment, 2026 · DOI ↗