Materials: 96 Buckets Local soil Sieve 10 Heating pads 600g maple litter 900g aspen litter 1 kg nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris) DI Water and water sprayer Wooden planks Soil miller CHN testing equipment Scale pH reader Methods: To test these hypotheses, a series of mesocosms (miniature replicates of real ecosystems) were created and subjected to different temperatures and different amounts of water. 3 temperature variants and 2 water variants were tested, for a total of 6 experimental groups: Ambient air temperature and ambient water. Plus 3 degrees celsius air temperature and ambient water. Plus 6 degrees celsius air temperature and ambient water. Ambient air temperature and -5% water. Plus 3 degrees celsius air temperature and -5% water. Plus 6 degrees celsius air temperature and -5% water. 8 mesocosms with worms and 8 without worms were prepared for each experimental group to rule out effects on the soil itself by the temperature and water treatments for a total of 96 mesocosms. The setup time for the mesocosms is considerable, and the instructions of which are as follows. The most time consuming step of this experiment is the soil gathering step. The soil was dug from the first 2 soil horizon and sieved to remove large rocks and organic material (roots, leaves, insects). For this project, a standing sieve was used and the soil (sand in the area of extraction) was collected in a wheelbarrow. Once full, the wheelbarrow was emptied into buckets until 96 were filled. The buckets were then transferred to the underground portion of the university of Michigan’s Biotron lab (basement with the ambient temperature of the surrounding soil). The buckets were placed on top of wooden plants to elevate them off of the ground (and the heating mats) to allow for drainage.The buckets were divided up into groups of 8, with each group being a different variable set. 64 of the buckets (or 8 groups of 8) were placed on top of wooden planks that were themselves on top of heating mats. One third of the buckets, or mesocosms once all the experimental components were added to them, were placed farther away from the other buckets to limit the heat from those buckets from affecting them as these were the ambient temperature buckets (those with no added heat to replicate the temperature today (15 degrees celsius in basement)). One third of the mesocosms were placed on heating mats set for 18 degrees (+3 degrees from ambient), and the last third were set up on mats set for 21 degrees celsius (+6 degrees from ambient). The average rainfall of pellston Michigan is 36.8 cm for May-September, or 0.24 cm per day. As the buckets are approximately 30 cm across, each bucket will receive 170 ml per day in the ambient water groups and 160 ml per day in the reduced water groups. Once set up in groups, each bucket was given approximately 9 grams of bigtooth Aspen leaf litter and 6 grams of maple leaf litter. After distributing the leaves, each mesocosm was given 300 ml of water to moisten the leaf litter and topsoil. Once the water was given an hour to percolate, 20 +/- 0.5 grams of Lumbricus terrestris earthworms were added to half of the mesocosms (8 per experimental group). The total weight of the leaves and worms were recorded as they were applied to the mesocosms. After setup, the buckets containing worms were covered with cheesecloth to prevent the worms from crawling out of them. Once all 96 mesocosms were set up, 6 samples of the source soil were obtained from the soil pit near the study site. Each of the 6 samples were analysed for pH, carbon content, and nitrogen content. Once the experiment was concluded, (Insert number here) mesocosms were tested for pH, Carbon, and Nitrogen. All buckets containing worms were emptied and the worms gathered, weighed, and counted as well as the mass of both species of leaves. A paired T test was done on each treatment to determine whether or not the effects measured were due to the worms themselves or the effects of the temperature and water on the soil. After this, an ANOVA test was run on all of the treatments together to determine a variance between each of the treatments using the program SPSS.