91 (3) · December 2019 pp. 113–137 Climate change effects on earthworms - a review Jaswinder Singh1,2,3, Martin Schädler2,3, Wilian Demetrio4, George G. Brown4,5 and Nico Eisenhauer2,6 1 Department of Zoology, Khalsa College Amritsar, G.T Road, 143002 Punjab, India 2 Department Community Ecology, Helmholtz - Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06110 Halle, Germany 3 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 4 Departamento de Solos e Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Rua dos Funcionários 1540, 80035-050 Curitiba, Brazil 5 Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Embrapa Forestry, Estrada da Ribeira Km. 111, 83411-000 Colombo, Brazil 6 Leipzig University, Institute of Biology, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany E-mail for correspondence:
[email protected],
[email protected] Received 22 October 2019 | Accepted 26 November 2019 Published online at www.soil-organisms.de 1 December 2019 | Printed version 15 December 2019 DOI 10.25674/so91iss3pp114 Abstract Climate change can have a plethora of effects on organisms above and below the ground in terrestrial ecosystems. Given the tremendous biodiversity in the soil and the many ecosystem functions governed by soil organisms, the drivers of soil biodiversity have received increasing attention. Various climatic factors like temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, as well as extreme climate events like drought and flood have been shown to alter the composition and functioning of communities in the soil. Earthworms are important ecosystem engineers in the soils of temperate and tropical climates and play crucial roles for many ecosystem services, including decomposition, nutrient cycling, and crop yield.