Digging deeper: deep joint species distribution modeling reveals environmental drivers of Earthworm Communities

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Hauptverfasser: Si-moussi, Sara, Thuiller, Wilfried, Galbrun, Esther, Decaëns, Thibaud, Gérard, Sylvain, Marchán, Daniel F., Marsden, Claire, Capowiez, Yvan, Hedde, Mickaël
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Si-moussi, Sara
Thuiller, Wilfried
Galbrun, Esther
Decaëns, Thibaud
Gérard, Sylvain
Marchán, Daniel F.
Marsden, Claire
Capowiez, Yvan
Hedde, Mickaël
author_facet Si-moussi, Sara
Thuiller, Wilfried
Galbrun, Esther
Decaëns, Thibaud
Gérard, Sylvain
Marchán, Daniel F.
Marsden, Claire
Capowiez, Yvan
Hedde, Mickaël
contents Earthworms are key drivers of soil function, influencing organic matter turnover, nutrient cycling, and soil structure. Understanding the environmental controls on their distribution is essential for predicting the impacts of land use and climate change on soil ecosystems. While local studies have identified abiotic drivers of earthworm communities, broad-scale spatial patterns remain underexplored. We developed a multi-species, multi-task deep learning model to jointly predict the distribution of 77 earthworm species across metropolitan France, using historical (1960-1970) and contemporary (1990-2020) records. The model integrates climate, soil, and land cover variables to estimate habitat suitability. We applied SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to identify key environmental drivers and used species clustering to reveal ecological response groups. The joint model achieved high predictive performance (TSS >= 0.7) and improved predictions for rare species compared to traditional species distribution models. Shared feature extraction across species allowed for more robust identification of common and contrasting environmental responses. Precipitation variability, temperature seasonality, and land cover emerged as dominant predictors of earthworm distribution. Species clustering revealed distinct ecological strategies tied to climatic and land use gradients. Our study advances both the methodological and ecological understanding of soil biodiversity. We demonstrate the utility of interpretable deep learning approaches for large-scale soil fauna modeling and provide new insights into earthworm habitat specialization. These findings support improved soil biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning in the face of global environmental change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_13568
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Digging deeper: deep joint species distribution modeling reveals environmental drivers of Earthworm Communities
Si-moussi, Sara
Thuiller, Wilfried
Galbrun, Esther
Decaëns, Thibaud
Gérard, Sylvain
Marchán, Daniel F.
Marsden, Claire
Capowiez, Yvan
Hedde, Mickaël
Applications
Populations and Evolution
Methodology
62J12
I.2.6; G.3; I.2.1; J.3
Earthworms are key drivers of soil function, influencing organic matter turnover, nutrient cycling, and soil structure. Understanding the environmental controls on their distribution is essential for predicting the impacts of land use and climate change on soil ecosystems. While local studies have identified abiotic drivers of earthworm communities, broad-scale spatial patterns remain underexplored. We developed a multi-species, multi-task deep learning model to jointly predict the distribution of 77 earthworm species across metropolitan France, using historical (1960-1970) and contemporary (1990-2020) records. The model integrates climate, soil, and land cover variables to estimate habitat suitability. We applied SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to identify key environmental drivers and used species clustering to reveal ecological response groups. The joint model achieved high predictive performance (TSS >= 0.7) and improved predictions for rare species compared to traditional species distribution models. Shared feature extraction across species allowed for more robust identification of common and contrasting environmental responses. Precipitation variability, temperature seasonality, and land cover emerged as dominant predictors of earthworm distribution. Species clustering revealed distinct ecological strategies tied to climatic and land use gradients. Our study advances both the methodological and ecological understanding of soil biodiversity. We demonstrate the utility of interpretable deep learning approaches for large-scale soil fauna modeling and provide new insights into earthworm habitat specialization. These findings support improved soil biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning in the face of global environmental change.
title Digging deeper: deep joint species distribution modeling reveals environmental drivers of Earthworm Communities
topic Applications
Populations and Evolution
Methodology
62J12
I.2.6; G.3; I.2.1; J.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13568