Soil is considered as a non-renewable resource, which may be lost in sloping land more rapidly than it is formed thus leading to loss of fertility and ecosystem deterioration. We hypothesized that earthworms could counteract this process due to their cast forming activity. To test this hypothesis, we quantified the production of casts in small plots of 0.25 m² established in three vegetation units (woodland, shrubland and meadow) in a catchment of 46 ha for 2.5 years in relation to their (micro-) pedoclimatic conditions. We also assessed the impact of cast formation on water runoff and soil detachment. Moreover, we quantified the mass of casts deposited in the entire catchment on a regular grid of 50 m and we measured soil erosion at the outlet of the catchment.

Our results showed a high and variable production of casts (from 16 to 219 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) depending on vegetation, season and year. The mass of casts found in the entire catchment represented on average 7.4 t ha⁻¹ with an annual production rate of 35 t ha⁻¹. Since the annual erosion rate measured for the entire catchment (3 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) was much lower than the cast production rate, our results indicated that most of the soil bioturbated by earthworms remained in the catchment. Indeed, water runoff and soil detachment measured in small plots showed that casts were not transported in the water runoff but degraded by raindrop impacts with the material remaining at the place of deposition. This process led to the generating of a new soil horizon at the culmination point of the catchment of up to 6.5 cm after 2.5 years. We conclude that the surface activity of anecic earthworms could influence soil generation at scale and conteract the effects of soil erosion.

土壤被认为是不可再生的资源，在坡地上流失的速度可能比形成土壤的速度快，从而导致肥力丧失和生态系统恶化。我们假设earth由于其铸造活动而可以抵消这一过程。为了检验这一假设，我们定量分析了在三个植被单元（林地，灌木丛和草甸）中，在46公顷的流域中，相对于其（微）古气候条件，在0.25 m ^2的小块地中种植了² .5年的铸件的产量。我们还评估了铸型对水径流和土壤脱离的影响。此外，我们量化了整个流域内50 m规则网格上的铸件质量，并测量了流域出口处的土壤侵蚀。

我们的结果表明，取决于植被，季节和年份，铸件的产量高且变化多端（从16 t到219 t ha - ¹年^-1）。整个集水区发现的铸件质量平均为7.4 t ha ^-1，年生产率为35 t ha ^-1。由于测量了整个流域的年侵蚀率（3 t ha - ¹年^-1）远低于铸件的生产率，我们的结果表明，大多数被bio生物扰动的土壤仍留在流域。的确，在小块土地上测得的水径流和土壤脱离表明，铸型没有在水径流中运输，而是由于雨滴的影响而退化，而物料仍留在沉积处。这个过程导致在2.5年后在集水区的最高点达6.5 cm处产生新的土壤层。我们得出的结论是，an的表面活性可能会大规模地影响土壤的产生并阻止土壤侵蚀的影响。