Essays
Have you ever wondered what holds our world together? We tend to believe that modern civilization, technology, or the economy are among our most critical pillars. Yet contemporary research in ecology and biology increasingly points to a fundamental reality: many of the processes that sustain life on Earth depend on organisms and ecological interactions that remain largely invisible to us, particularly those beneath our feet.
What would happen if these microworlds - soil dwellers and insects - were to gradually fall silent and disappear? Let us engage in a scientifically grounded, hypothetical thought experiment to observe how nature’s row of dominoes might begin to fall, from the leaf litter to some of our most vital ecological defenses.
Imagine that one day, the organisms inhabiting the spaces beneath rocks, stones, and fallen leaves were to disappear. Springtails, tiny worms, beetles, and larvae would be no more. At first glance, we might not even notice. However, the biological consequences could begin to emerge relatively quickly.
This community of minuscule organisms performs essential functions in the decomposition of organic matter and the cycling of nutrients. If the leaf-litter community ceased to exist, the decomposition of dead plant material could slow substantially. Nutrients would be returned to the soil less efficiently, while processes contributing to humus formation could be disrupted. At the same time, birds, ground-foraging hedgehogs, and terrestrial amphibians that feed on invertebrates could lose an important food source, potentially placing additional pressure on their populations.
Should this process ripple further, and assuming earthworms were to disappear from the soil as well, important aspects of soil structure and function could be affected. Charles Darwin, the renowned naturalist, devoted an entire book to earthworms, emphasizing the remarkable influence these seemingly insignificant creatures can have on the formation and maintenance of fertile soil.
Earthworm burrows can contribute to soil aeration, drainage, and the movement of water through the soil profile. Without their activity, some soils could become more compacted and less biologically active. During heavy rainfall, reduced infiltration could contribute to increased surface runoff and, under certain conditions, greater soil erosion. For agriculture, the consequences could be serious: plant roots could encounter less favorable conditions, while nutrient cycling and natural soil fertility could be impaired.
The chain reaction could continue above ground. With the disappearance of stag beetles, an important component of forest decomposition would be lost. Stag beetle larvae spend years developing in decaying wood, particularly in association with old and dead trees, where their feeding activity contributes to the decomposition process. Without them, other decomposers would still remain, but one component of the forest’s natural recycling system would have disappeared.
Meanwhile, the absence of butterflies would remove another group of wild pollinators from the ecosystem. Although bees dominate public discussion of pollination, butterflies also contribute to the reproduction of wild plants and some agricultural crops. Their disappearance could therefore affect plant reproduction and further reduce the resilience of already stressed ecosystems.
Why do mosquito populations sometimes increase dramatically during favorable periods? One important part of the answer lies in ecological regulation, including predation. Dragonflies are important predators in both aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Their aquatic larvae prey on mosquito larvae, while adult dragonflies hunt a variety of flying insects. If dragonflies, alongside wetland-dependent frogs and newts, were removed from this ecological network, an important layer of natural biological control would disappear.
If we also factor in declines among aerially hunting birds and ground-level insectivores such as swallows and hedgehogs, the system of checks and balances could become increasingly disrupted. Under certain environmental conditions, this could contribute to higher mosquito and agricultural pest populations, potentially increasing ecological and, in the case of disease-vectoring mosquitoes, public-health pressures.
When discussing ecosystem stability and food production, bees occupy a particularly important position. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approximately 35 percent of global crop production, by volume, is affected by animal pollinators, while around three-quarters of the world’s most productive crop plants depend on pollinators to some degree. The situation is more complex than the familiar image of the managed honeybee, however.
On one hand, wild bees - including many solitary species - play important roles in natural ecosystems and agriculture. Many nest in the ground, while others use cavities or plant material. Habitat loss, intensive agriculture, pesticide exposure, and other environmental pressures can reduce the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators.
On the other hand, managed honeybee colonies are maintained through human husbandry and therefore exist within a very different ecological and economic framework. Their survival can nevertheless be affected by multiple interacting pressures, including nutritional stress, parasites, pathogens, pesticide exposure, and climate-related changes.
If both wild pollinators and managed honeybee colonies were to suffer severe and widespread declines, the consequences for pollination-dependent crops could become substantial. Humanity would not necessarily face an immediate collapse of the global food system, since many staple crops are wind-pollinated or reproduce through other mechanisms. Nevertheless, the diversity, availability, and reliability of numerous foods could be significantly affected.
This thought experiment is not intended as alarmism. It reflects a broader ecological principle: organisms that appear insignificant individually can perform functions that become highly consequential when considered as part of an interconnected system.
E. O. Wilson famously expressed the importance of insects in striking terms, arguing that the disappearance of insects would have profound consequences for the environment. His statement has since become one of the most widely repeated observations about the ecological importance of insects.
Charles Darwin, more than a century earlier, reached a similarly striking conclusion about earthworms. In his 1881 work on earthworms, he observed that few animals had played as important a role in the history of the world as these seemingly humble creatures.
The inhabitants of the leaf litter, earthworms, stag beetles, bees, and vertebrate predators such as frogs, newts, swallows, and hedgehogs are not independent elements. They form parts of a complex and interdependent ecological network in which disturbances at one level can propagate through others.
The scenario outlined above remains a theoretical thought experiment rather than a prediction of a single, inevitable outcome. Ecosystems are remarkably complex, and their responses to species loss vary according to climate, geography, redundancy among species, and the ability of other organisms to compensate for lost functions.
Yet the underlying lesson remains clear: protecting biodiversity is not merely a matter of aesthetics. It is also about preserving the ecological processes upon which healthy soils, functioning ecosystems, food production, and ultimately human societies depend.
FAO - “What is Soil Biodiversity?” - Source
FAO - “Global Action on Pollination Services for Sustainable Agriculture.” - Source
Priyadarshana & Slade - “A Meta-analysis Reveals that Dragonflies and Damselflies Can Provide Effective Biological Control of Mosquitoes.” Journal of Animal Ecology (2023) - Source
Charles Darwin - The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms (1881) - Source
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