Applied Soil Ecology 167 (2021) 104035 0929-1393/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Distribution of earthworm communities in agroecosystems with forested riparian buffer strips: A multiscale study Ashley Cameron a , Gabriel Boilard a , Rapha¨ elle Dubois a , Robert Bradley a, * , Petra Benetkov´ a b , Agnieszka J´ ozefowska c , Naresh Thevathasan d , Joann Whalen e , Miloslav ˇ Simek f a Biology Department, University of Sherbrooke, Canada b Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic c Department of Soil Science and Agrophysics, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland d School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Canada e Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada f Biology Centre, Institute of Soil Biology, ˇ Cesk´ e Budˇ ejovice, Czech Republic A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Field surveys Earthworm life-forms Spatial scales Habitat Redundancy analysis Conditional regression trees ABSTRACT Knowledge is lacking on the factors controlling the structure and spatial distribution of earthworm communities within agroecosystems. We frst hypothesized that forested riparian buffer strips (FRBS) within agricultural landscapes would be a refuge for earthworms, as we predicted higher soil moisture and organic matter inputs in FRBS than in adjacent agricultural felds (treatments = FRBS vs. Field). We further hypothesized that earthworms would be most abundant where the chemical quality of above- and belowground plant litter is high, or where soil disturbance is low. We conducted a feld survey to quantify earthworm species abundances in FRBS and adjacent agricultural felds in two bioregions, namely Eastern Canada and Central Europe. At each of 77 sites, we collected and identifed earthworms from three plots within FRBS and within adjacent agricultural felds. In each plot, we identifed the tree species, understory vegetation, soil drainage class, agricultural crop as well as fve soil physicochemical properties. In each bioregion and treatment, we found proportionately more endogeic than anecic or epigeic earthworm species. In Eastern Canada, there were proportionately fewer anecic and more epigeic individuals in FRBS than in felds; in Central Europe there were fewer endogeic and more anecic earthworms in FRBS than in felds. We found signifcant bioregion × treatment interactions on earthworm abundance and soil moisture. More specifcally, in Eastern Canada we found higher earthworm abundance and soil moisture in FRBS, whereas in Central Europe we found higher earthworm abundance in felds and no treatment effect on soil moisture. In both bioregions, we found higher organic matter in FRBS than in felds. In Eastern Canada, earthworm abundance in deciduous and mixedwood stands were higher than in coniferous stands; in Central Europe, earthworm abundance was highest in deciduous stands only. Within FRBS in Eastern Canada, the abundance of the prominent endogeic species, Apporectodea rosea, was correlated with herbaceous plants, notably ferns and graminoids. Conditional regression tree analysis revealed positive relationships be- tween earthworms and soil clay content, pH, moisture and organic matter. Our results suggest that local and landscape patterns in earthworm diversity can be predicted by soil and vegetation attributes, however the relative importance of these factors changes across continental scales due to differences in precipitation patterns and soil moisture availability. Comparing the distributions of earthworms across different scales provides in- sights into the potential of different species to spread into new habitats with climate change. 1. Introduction Forested riparian buffer strips (FRBS) are increasingly prevalent in temperate agroecosystems due to their capacity to absorb nutrients from agricultural runoff (Fortier et al., 2015). FRBS may also provide habitat and migration corridors for wildlife (Machtans et al., 1996; Palone and Todd, 1997), improve the ecological integrity of streams (Angermeier and Karr, 1984; Bladon et al., 2016) as well as provide woody material to * Corresponding author. E-mail address: Robert.Bradley@USherbrooke.ca (R. Bradley). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Soil Ecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsoil https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2021.104035 Received 27 July 2020; Received in revised form 8 April 2021; Accepted 9 April 2021