R E P O R T - Green Foundation Ireland

In this talk Mark Hodson discussed the various benefits that earthworms bring to soils but also some of the reasons why we need to be cautious about how we interpret the presence of earthworms. [...] He got diverted by rocks and studied geology at university but for the last thirty years or so has conducted research on a variety of applied soil science topics such as combating the effects of acid rain and decontaminating the soils at former metal mines. [...] He tackled his subject in a light and accessible way that made it easy listening for the non- scientist, as well as covering the needs of the number of soil research scientists who joined us for the talk. [...] One of the more intriguing questions for generalists was "are earthworms social animals and could this explain density"? The conclusion was there is no evidence for sociability and density was more likely due to other factors such as moisture and soil density. [...] He also mentioned that a good source of information about earthworms can be found on the website of the Earthworm Society of Britain, and that the earthworm citizens science project Earthworm Watch (although data collection for this project is now closed) may be of interest.