Long-term dynamics of the abundance of earthworms and enchytraeids (Annelida, Clitellata: Lumbricidae, Enchytraeidae) in forests of the Central Urals, Russia

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, long-term monitoring of terrestrial ecosystems in metal-contaminated areas has been carried out in the Central Urals. As a part of these monitoring programmes,the data on soil macroinvertebrates in undisturbed areas as reference sites continues to begathered. These data help study the local biodiversity and long-term dynamics of soilmacroinvertebrate abundance in non-polluted areas.The dataset (available from the GBIF network at https://www.gbif.org/dataset/bf5bc7f6-71a3-4abd-8abc-861ee3cbf84a) includes information from a long-term monitoringprogramme for two taxa of Annelids, Lumbricidae and Enchytraeidae, which dwell in thetopsoil of spruce-fir, birch, pine and floodplain forests in the Central Urals. The datasetincludes information on the earthworm community structure (list of species, speciesabundance, number of egg cocoons, cocoon exuvia, juveniles and adults) and enchytraeidabundance. The dataset consists of 553 sampling events (= samples, corresponding toupper and lower layers of the soil monoliths) and 12739 occurrences (earthworms, mainlyidentified to species and earthworm cocoons and enchytraeids, identified to family)collected during 1990–1991, 2004, 2014–2016 and 2018–2020. In total, 3305 individuals ofearthworms were collected, representing ten (out of twelve) species and all eight generarecorded for the fauna of the Central Urals. In addition, 7292 earthworm egg cocoons andcocoon exuvia and 6926 individuals of enchytraeids were accumulated. The presence-absence data on each of the ten earthworm species, egg cocoons, cocoon exuvia andenchytraeids are provided for each sampling event. All data were collected in undisturbednon-polluted areas and are used as a local reference for ecotoxicological monitoring. Thedataset provides valuable information for estimating the composition and abundance ofearthworm communities in different habitats over a long time and contributes to the studyof soil fauna biodiversity in the Urals.