ArticleNature communications2023
Earthworms contribute significantly to global food production.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Integrated Analyses of mRNA and microRNA Regulatory Networks at Different Soil Moisture in Tropical EarthwormBiology · 2026Article
- Temperate Forest Floors: Ecosystem Hubs in Transition?Global change biology · 2026Review
- An agroecological perspective on systems-level transformations to keep current food systems from degrading the global commons.Nature food · 2026Review
- Small heat shock proteins with two alpha-crystallin domains: a new set of proteins in the earthworm Eisenia fetida with differential transcriptional responses to stressors.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- Organic Fertilizer Substitution Modulates Soil Properties and Microbial Communities in a Vegetable-Earthworm Co-Cultivation System.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Subtropical maize production and soil microbial communities show minimal response to earthworm bio-tillage.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Ecological and evolutionary responses of earthworm holobionts to environmental changes.The ISME journal · 2025Review
- Article
- Wheat field earthworms under divergent farming systems across a European climate gradient.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Monitoring soil fauna with ecoacoustics.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- The responses of COPeerJ · 2024Article
- Earthworms With Low Dose n-MoSPhysiologia plantarumArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Earthworms are critical soil ecosystem engineers that support plant growth in numerous ways; however, their contribution to global agricultural production has not been quantified. We estimate the impacts of earthworms on global production of key crops by analyzing maps of earthworm abundance, soil properties, and crop yields together with earthworm-yield responses from the literature. Our findings indicate that earthworms contribute to roughly 6.5% of global grain (maize, rice, wheat, barley) production and 2.3% of legume production, equivalent to over 140 million metric tons annually. The earthworm contribution is especially notable in the global South, where earthworms contribute 10% of total grain production in Sub-Saharan Africa and 8% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our findings suggest that earthworms are important drivers of global food production and that investment in agroecological policies and practices to support earthworm populations and overall soil biodiversity could contribute greatly to sustainable agricultural goals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.