{
  "abstract": "Earthworms (Lumbricidae) are moisture-loving soil-dwellers that can be categorized into two feeding guilds with distinct behaviours: detritivores and geophages. Detritivores feed on litter fragments and geophages on smaller litter particles mixed with soil. When earthworms move within and across soil layers to forage, soil characteristics might influence the scale of these movements and their detectability to predators. To investigate the extent to which the detection of earthworm movements and the vibrations they thereby generate is affected by soil moisture, we used an innovative method to detect and quantify vibrations of moving earthworms emitted through the soil. We designed a mesocosm experiment in which we recorded, with a geophone, the movement-induced vibrations of detritivores and geophages in drier and wetter soils. Earthworm vibrations were detected best at 200 Hz and were detected significantly more in wetter than in drier soils. Moreover, in wetter soils, vibrations induced by detritivores were detected more frequently and at higher intensities than those of geophages. These findings suggest differences in activity levels between detritivores and geophages, as a function of soil moisture content. The observed activity patterns are likely to have food web consequences because earthworm consumers relying on mechanoreceptors to detect prey might detect detritivores more often, specifically in wetter soils.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen 1 , Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands",
    "BirdEyes, Centre for Global Ecological Change at the Faculties of Science & Engineering and Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen 2 , Wirdumerdijk 34, 8911 CE Leeuwarden, The Netherlands",
    "Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment, Section Ecology and Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 3 , De Boelelaan 1107, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands",
    "Science Team Sustainability & Wellbeing, Faculty Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen 4 , Doelestrjitte 8, 8911 DX Leeuwarden, The Netherlands",
    "Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research 5 , Landsdiep 4, 1797 SZ 't Horntje, Texel, The Netherlands"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Renée Veenstra",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8150-0079"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Wouter Halfwerk",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4111-0930"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Mohamed Henriques",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3061-5423"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Jurgen van Hal"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Matty P. Berg"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Theunis Piersma"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6g62dqf0st9xw.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.1098/rsos.260667",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13682886",
  "id": "6g62dqf0st9xw",
  "issns": [
    "2054-5703"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/260667/483803/Soil-moisture-enhances-the-vibrations-induced-by",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1105|Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223048270",
  "pdf_url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article-pdf/doi/10.1098/rsos.260667/6172435/rsos.260667.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13682886",
  "pmid": "42904283",
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": "The Royal Society",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6g62dqf0st9xw.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:45Z",
      "native_id": "10.1098/rsos.260667",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/260667/483803/Soil-moisture-enhances-the-vibrations-induced-by"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:53Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42904283",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42904283"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1105|Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Soil moisture enhances the vibrations induced by moving earthworms, especially of detritivores",
  "title_text": "Soil moisture enhances the vibrations induced by moving earthworms, especially of detritivores",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:53Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6g62dqf0st9xw",
  "venue": "Royal Society Open Science",
  "versions": []
}