What is it about?
This is a report of abundant populations of an earthworm species previously only known from a small region in south-western France on an urban farm in Dublin, Ireland. It is one of few documented examples of a below-ground animal species extendding its distribution range so far northwards. The study also found that the new species co-exists with several native species and that it may feed on older soil carbon than the local species.
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Why is it important?
Soil decomposer species including earthworms are frequently introduced into nonnative soils by human activities such as the transportation of nursery plants or live fish bait. There have been a few recordings of the earthworm P. amplisetosus outside of its native range in the Aquitaine region of south-western France, but we have discovered a successfully thriving population in Ireland, about 1,000 km north of its native habitat.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Northward range extension of an endemic soil decomposer with a distinct trophic position, Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, July 2012, Royal Society Publishing,
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0537.
You can read the full text:
Resources
ScienceDaily report
A report by the ScienceDaily website.
New York Times article
An article in the NEw York TImes about our study.
Radio interview
Interview of Olaf Schmidt by RTE (Ireland's National TV and Radio Broadcaster)
Report in Science magazine
A piece in Science.
Recommendation in Faculty of 1000
Recommendation as "new Finding" on F1000Prime,
Supplementary material (map)
Figure S1 - Satellite image (from Google Earth) illustrating Airfield farm with approximate locations of habitats sampled .
Supplementary material (table)
Table S1 - Names of earthworm species and the number of habitats from a total of 11 where they were recorded.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
