Earthworm bioturbation: environmental conditions that inluence earthworm burrowing and activity (thèse en cotutelle avec l'université d'Uppsala, Suède ; co-encadrant : Thomas Keller ; 2019-2022)

Earthworms, as ecosystem engineers, have a key role in the biological reworking of soils. The transporting and mixing of soil by earthworms is known as bioturbation and is one of the key natural processes that shapes soil structure. Several environmental conditions (e.g. soil mechanical resistance, SOC) affect earthworms activity and many of these can be easily modified by human activities (e.g. agriculture). The aim of this research is to understand how earthworm burrowing activity is affected by soil conditions. We aim at quantifying burrowing rates as a function of soil mechanical conditions and soil organic carbon concentration, this is achieved by combining experiments at various scales.