Patrick J. Bohlen

TL;DR: The role of earthworms in soil structure, fertility and productivity, and the influence of environmental factors on earthworms are described.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of urban development on the functioning of forest ecosystems during the past decade was studied, where red oak stands located on similar soil along an urban-rural gradient running from New York City to rural Litchfield County, Connecticut.

TL;DR: Inclusion of soil animals will improve the predictive capabilities of region- or biome-scale decomposition models, soil animal influences on decomposition are important at the regional scale when attempting to predict global change scenarios, and the statistical relationship between decomposition rates and climate, at the global scale, is robust against changes in soil faunal abundance and diversity.

TL;DR: Soils of north temperate forests harbor a tremendous diversity of microorganisms and invertebrates, whose distribution and abundance can be substantially altered by earthworm invasion, and invasive earthworms can affect understory plant communities, raising concerns over the loss of rare native herbs.

TL;DR: The invasion of European earthworms into previously earthworm-free temperate and boreal forests of North America dominated by Acer, Quercus, Betula, Pinus and Populus has provided ample opportunity to observe how earthworms engineer ecosystems.