What is the ‘point’ of earthworms? If they all disappeared tomorrow, would there be any impact? (Other than a food source loss for some animals)

Question

As above. Sorry if this is a silly question!

I realise there is no ‘point’ to any particular animal or plant, but you often find that various species provide some sort of benefit (e.g. plants giving out oxygen, those birds that clean crocodiles’ teeth, spiders eat a lot of flies).

I just wondered if worms are particularly ‘useful’, because they don’t seem to do much from what I can tell

In: 170

Answer 1

If you try to produce some compost from organic material, you realize immediately how important small critters in the top soil are.
Leaves in a bin with a bit of soil from your plants? That thing takes forever.
Throw in some soil from the garden (probably with some worms in it)? That heap turns into nice black fertile soil so fast!
Spoiler: there’s a lot of worm poop in there.