Subterranean soundscapes: acoustic monitoring of the arctic earthworm invasion

Arctic soils store a huge amount of soil organic carbon. As non-native earthworms expand their range farther north into the Fennoscandian arctic, some researchers predict they’ll increase release of greenhouse gases as they breakdown organic materials in soils. This paper by Wackett et al. on earthworm introduction and its effects nicely outlines the ecological consequences of earthworm range expansion.

We tested whether it was possible to monitor for the presence of earthworms using underground microphones and found that they altered subterranean soundscapes by making them louder, seemingly through the creation of tunnels and macropores that allow for aboveground noise to more easily penetrate soils.

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Graphical abstract from Keen et al. 2022