Abstract
Agricultural intensification negatively impacts on earthworm species. This important group of soil invertebrates plays an important role in the delivery of ecosystem functions and services such as organic matter decomposition, soil structure formation, top soil hydrology and greenhouse gas regulation. Restoration of diverse earthworm communities and associated ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes is determined by the dispersal characteristics of individual earthworm species. The proposed project aims to connect knowledge on the relations between earthworm diversity and earthworm-mediated EFs and ESs to the understanding of their survival and dispersal behavior and spatial distribution in a complex landscape. Using a trait-based soil ecology approach in combination with spatially-explicit modeling we will deliver scientific knowledge as a basis for decision-support tools for the enhancement cq. restoration of earthworm-mediated EFs and ESs. The research focuses on agricultural fields and surrounding semi-natural habitats and their spatial configuration and interactions in a complex landscape. Policy makers, farmers organizations, NGOs and other landscape managers and decision makers will benefit from the results
Netherlands