The humble earthworm is valued by farmers and gardeners alike for its contribution to healthy soils. But if you dig two holes in a field, you can find earthworms in the soil from one hole but not the other. What controls the distribution of earthworms has remained a poorly understood question since the time of Darwin.
In this talk we’ll discuss whether finding earthworms in soil is a good indicator of a healthy soil, what factors control the presence of earthworms in soil and how many holes you have to dig to find an earthworm.
FSC Natural History Live webinars are free online learning experiences for adults, comprising of a 30-40 minute talk from a guest speaker, followed by a question and answer session. We host them on Zoom and we will send out joining instructions on the day of the event. Sign up for the FSC Biodiversity newsletter to find out about our other online learning opportunities and receive exclusive discounts.
This event can be booked through the Natural History Live webinars Evenbrite page.
Tutor: Mark Hodson
Mark Hodson began his research career studying how magma chambers solidified below volcanoes in Greenland millions of years ago but his need for a job lead him into the world of soils. Research on cleaning up metal contaminated soils introduced him to the use of earthworms as indicators of “healthy soil” and he has been investigating various aspects of earthworm ecology ever since. @MarkEHodson
Cost
These Natural History Live webinars are made available to all at no cost. If you would like to contribute to the Natural History Live webinar programme you can do so by selecting the option to attend at a cost of £5. All donated fees contribute financially towards supporting adult learning opportunities for a range of audiences with the FSC. This event can be booked through the Natural History Live webinars Evenbrite page.
Example Timetable
The usual format of Natural History Live virtual events is:
- 5 minute intro by the FSC Biodiversity project team
- 30-40 minute talk presented by guest speaker
- 15-25 minute speaker Q&A session hosted by a FSC staff member
What's Included
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Expert Tuition
Bursaries and Subsidies
FSC BioLinks
FSC BioLinks is an exciting project for FSC in the South East and West Midlands, bringing together existing volunteers with skills in biological recording and identification, and new volunteers.
This project provides subsidised training courses, learning opportunities and digital tools focussed on invertebrate identification for anyone involved or interested in biological recording, to build and strengthen the community.
Invertebrates provide us with many useful ecosystem services, like pollination and decomposition, which we cannot survive without but their numbers are declining. Few people know how to identify or record invertebrates meaning there is a lack of data
We are delighted to have been awarded a grant of £1.23 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for this project.
Before You Attend
Please note that after booking on to the event:
- You will need to download the Zoom software before we start. This is free and you can do so here: https://zoom.us/
- You can sign into the Zoom test meeting any time before to test if everything is working for you here: https://zoom.us/test
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