by Matteo Cavallito<\/p>\n
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In the United Kingdom, the population of earthworms, invertebrates<\/strong> essential to soil health, may have declined by more than a third<\/strong> over the past 25 years, a research by the British Trust for Ornithology<\/strong> (BTO) has found. The work has been presented in recent weeks at the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n The study, whose conclusions were quoted<\/a> by the Guardian, is the result of an analysis of more than a hundred research studies conducted on a small scale over the space of a century. “It\u2019s looking like there is evidence of a long-term decline<\/strong>,” said James Pearce-Higgins<\/strong>, scientific director of the BTO quoted by the British newspaper. “A large-scale decline in soil biodiversity \u2013 particularly the loss of earthworms \u2013 would sit alongside concerns about \u2018insectaggedon<\/a>\u2019 [insect population collapse, ed.] and the wider biodiversity crisis.”<\/p>\n