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Abstract

1. In many terrestrial ecosystems earthworms operate at the interface between plants and soil. As ecosystem engineers, they affect key ecosystem functions such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and bioturbation. Their incidence and abundance depends on several soil properties, yet simultaneously they also impact soil properties themselves. The existence of a positive feedback loop in which earthworm activity maintains their own niche - by promoting turnover rate in the forest floor, thereby increasing topsoil pH and creating suitable living conditions for themselves has been suggested before, yet lacks supporting evidence. Here we assessed how tree species litter traits relate to such belowground interactions in forests across Europe. Specifically, we hypothesized a belowground feedback loop between burrowing earthworm biomass, humus form and pH, affected by litter quality. We tested this hypothesis by means of structural equation modelling. 3. Our results demonstrate that litter nutrient concentrations affect both burrowing and litter dwelling earthworm biomass, which in turn directly impact humus form and indirectly soil pH. At a continental scale, i.e. including all edaphic conditions, soil pH did not feed into earthworm biomass nor could we link leaf structural recalcitrance (e.g. lignin) or functional diversity to belowground interactions.