Author Archives: Keiron Derek Brown

Spring 2023: Earthworm Courses & Events

At the Biological Recording Company, one of our 4 primary aims is to increase our knowledge of earthworms by delivering training courses and recording events across the UK. Most of these are free to attend due to funding from partners (or just our own goodwill), and all of them are components of the Earthworm IDContinue reading “Spring 2023: Earthworm Courses & Events”

The Earthworm Invasion of North America

Earthworms are well-known ecosystem engineers, profoundly affecting soil processes. They are generally considered beneficial organisms that improve soil quality. But what happens when earthworms are introduced to ecosystems that have evolved with no or very different kinds of earthworms? Prof Katalin Szlávecz discusses the impacts of non-native earthworms in the Atlantic region of North America.

The Giant Wetland Worms of South America

The Orinoco Llanos of Columbia and Venezuela were home to a mystery. These tropical wetlands are home to a landscape dominated by densely packed, regularly spaced mounds of soil. These Surales can be up to 5 m in diameter and 2 m tall and cover an area almost the size of Scotland! Rumsaïs Blatrix takes us on a journey to South America to discover how the mystery of the Surales was solved by her research team.

Phylogenetic Tools to Dig Out the Evolutionary History of Earthworms

The morphology of earthworms is as obscure as their habitat, and this complicates our understanding of their evolutionary relationships and historical biogeography. Dr Daniel Marchán reviews different applications of genetic tools to shed light on these big questions, with an emphasis on the rare, endemic and threatened species.