Elsevier, Applied Soil Ecology, 3(41), p. 315-328
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsoil.2008.12.005
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Within-field spatial distribution of ecosystem engineers such as earthworms determine the spatial patterns of important ecosystem processes at the field scale. But the driving factors that shape the within-field spatial variability of earthworm populations remain largely unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the earthworm distribution patterns in a tilled arable field and to explain earthworm spatial variability as a function of biotic interactions within populations and of abiotic soil heterogeneity measured as the soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa).