You can grow food and maintain biodiversity at the same time
Beneath the working soils of São Paulo's interior, two earthworm species unknown to science have been quietly sustaining the earth for untold generations before researchers finally gave them names. Their discovery at Embrapa's Canchim Farm is not merely a taxonomic milestone — it is a reminder that the living architecture beneath our feet remains largely unmapped, and that the choices farmers make each season determine whether that hidden world endures. In finding Fimoscolex bernardii and Glossoscolex canchim thriving within integrated crop-livestock-forest systems, scientists have gathered evidence that productivity and biodiversity need not be adversaries.
- Brazil's earthworm inventory covers only around 336 of an estimated 1,400-plus species, leaving the vast majority of the country's soil fauna undocumented and vulnerable to disappearing before they are ever known.
- Conventional agricultural intensification routinely erases the subterranean communities that make fertile soil possible, turning a crisis of biodiversity into a slow-motion crisis of food security.
- A research team spanning three institutions spent years sampling soils across multiple farming configurations at Canchim Farm, seeking measurable proof of how land management shapes what lives below the surface.
- Both newly described species were found in areas managed under integrated crop-livestock-forest systems, and the data showed those approaches actively supported growing populations of native earthworms.
- The findings, published in Zootaxa, reframe integrated farming not as a compromise but as a potential conservation tool — one that could protect undiscovered biodiversity across Brazil's Cerrado and Atlantic Forest transition zones.
In the municipality of São Carlos, on a research farm managed by Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, scientists have named two earthworm species that had never before been documented. The announcement, published in the international journal Zootaxa, is the result of fieldwork begun in 2018 by researchers from three Brazilian institutions who set out to understand how different farming systems affect soil life.
The two species — Fimoscolex bernardii and Glossoscolex canchim — belong to the native family Glossoscolecidae. One honors Alberto Bernardi, an Embrapa researcher with more than two decades dedicated to integrated production systems; the other takes its name from the canchim tree, a native Atlantic Forest species that lent its name to both a cattle breed and the farm itself. Specimens are now preserved in the Fritz Müller Collection of Oligochaetes and São Paulo's Museum of Zoology.
Earthworms are far more than incidental residents of the soil. Their movement creates channels for water and air, their feeding breaks down organic matter, and their presence or absence tells scientists whether a given environment can sustain life. Led by doctoral researcher Lilianne Maia Bruz, the team found that integrated crop-livestock-forest systems created conditions in which earthworm populations — both native and non-native — grew over time.
The discovery carries weight beyond taxonomy. Brazil has formally described roughly 336 earthworm species, yet estimates place the true total above 1,400, with the Cerrado region particularly understudied. The area around São Carlos, sitting at the transition between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes, proved an especially rich site for this kind of research. What the Canchim findings suggest is that conservation-minded farming practices may quietly shelter species that have never been catalogued — and that how we choose to farm will determine how many of them survive long enough to be found.
In the interior of São Paulo, on a working farm managed by Brazil's agricultural research agency, scientists have identified two earthworm species never before documented by science. The discovery, announced in April through a peer-reviewed journal, offers concrete evidence that the way we farm can either diminish or sustain the living world beneath our feet.
The two species—named Fimoscolex bernardii and Glossoscolex canchim—were found at Canchim Farm, a research station operated by Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste in the municipality of São Carlos. Researchers from three institutions, including the Federal University of Santa Catarina and the Federal University of Paraná, collected specimens from areas managed under different conservation-based systems: integrated crop-livestock-forest operations, crop-livestock combinations, livestock-forest pairings, pastures, and direct-seeded fields. The work was published in the international journal Zootaxa and represents the culmination of research that began in 2018, when teams set out to measure how integrated farming systems affected soil quality and earthworm populations.
Earthworms are not incidental to soil health—they are foundational. As these organisms move through earth, they create channels that allow water to penetrate and air to circulate. They break down plant residue and work organic matter into the soil matrix, processes that directly shape the soil's physical, chemical, and biological character. Scientists regard earthworms as bioindicators, organisms whose presence or absence signals whether an environment can sustain life. When earthworms thrive, the soil is working.
The two newly identified species belong to the family Glossoscolecidae, native to Brazil. One was named to honor Alberto Bernardi, a researcher at Embrapa who has spent more than twenty years studying integrated production systems. The other takes its name from the canchim tree, a native Atlantic Forest species that also inspired the name of the Canchim cattle breed and the farm itself. Specimens have been deposited in the Fritz Müller Collection of Oligochaetes, maintained by Embrapa Florestas in Paraná, and reference examples sent to São Paulo's Museum of Zoology.
The research team, led by doctoral researcher Lilianne Maia Bruz, found something significant: integrated farming systems created conditions favorable for maintaining earthworm populations over time. The data showed increases in both native and non-native earthworm species in areas managed under these integrated approaches. This matters because it suggests that productive land and biological diversity need not be in opposition—that the systems we use to grow food can also shelter the organisms that make soil fertile.
Brazil's earthworm inventory remains sparse. Scientists have formally described approximately 336 species, yet estimates suggest the country may harbor more than 1,400. Much of this biodiversity remains unstudied, particularly in the Cerrado region. The discovery at Canchim Farm fills a gap in our understanding of Brazilian soil fauna and, more broadly, illuminates the distribution of native species across the transitional zone between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes. The region around São Carlos, with its environmental diversity and intensive agricultural use, has proven strategically valuable for this kind of research.
What emerges from this work is a hypothesis with practical weight: conservation-minded farming practices may protect native biodiversity. The presence of two previously unknown species in productive systems suggests that the way land is managed—whether it integrates crops, livestock, and trees, or relies on direct seeding and rotational grazing—shapes which organisms can persist. As researchers continue to map Brazil's soil fauna, the question becomes clearer: How many more species remain undocumented, and what agricultural practices will allow them to survive?
Citas Notables
Integrated farming systems created conditions favorable for maintaining earthworm populations over time— Research team findings, led by Lilianne Maia Bruz
Earthworms are important bioindicators of environmental quality, as their presence typically reflects conditions favorable for biological functioning— Research team
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does finding two earthworm species matter? They're small, hidden in soil—most people never see them.
Because earthworms are the infrastructure of soil fertility. When you find new species thriving in productive farmland, it tells you something important: you can grow food and maintain biodiversity at the same time. Most people assume those goals conflict.
But these are just two species out of potentially 1,400. Doesn't that underscore how little we know?
Exactly. And that's the point. We're still discovering what lives in Brazilian soil. Each discovery is a reminder that we're managing ecosystems we don't fully understand. Finding these species in integrated farming systems suggests those systems might be doing something right.
What makes integrated farming different from conventional agriculture?
In integrated systems, you're mixing crops, livestock, and sometimes trees on the same land. It creates more varied conditions—different plant residues, different soil disturbance patterns, different microclimates. Earthworms respond to that complexity. They have more niches to occupy.
So the researcher who spent twenty years on this work—Bernardi—gets a species named after him. Is that just ceremony, or does it signal something?
It signals that this work matters enough to be remembered. Naming a species is how science honors the people who laid the groundwork. But it also means his decades of research on integrated systems now have a tangible outcome: proof that these methods can sustain life forms we didn't even know existed.