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Earthworms are primary candidates for national soil health monitoring as they are ecosystem engineers that benefit both food production and ecosystem services associated with soil security. Supporting farmers to monitor soil health could help to achieve the policy aspiration of sustainable soils by 2030 in England; however, little is known about how to overcome participation barriers, appropriate methodologies (practical, cost-effective, usefulness) or training needs. This paper presents the results from a pilot #60minworms study which mobilised farmers to assess over >1300 ha farmland soils in spring 2018. The results interpretation framework is based on the presence of earthworms from each of the three ecological groups at each observation (20 x 20 cm x 20 cm pit) and spatially across a field (10 soil pits). Results showed that most fields have basic earthworm presence and abundance, but 42% fields may be over-worked as indicated by absence/rarity of epigeic and/or anecic earthworms. Tillage had a negative impact (p < 0.05) on earthworm populations and organic matter management did not mitigate tillage impacts. In terms of farmer participation, Twitter and Farmers Weekly magazine were highly effective channels for recruitment. Direct feedback from participants included excellent scores in trust, value and satisfaction of the protocol (e.g. 100% would do the test again) and 57% would use their worm survey results to change their soil management practices. A key training need in terms of earthworm identification skills was reported. The trade-off between data quality, participation rates and fieldwork costs suggests there is potential to streamline the protocol further to #30minworms (5 pits), incurring farmer fieldwork costs of approximately £1.48 ha-1. At national scales, £14 million pounds across 4.7 M ha-1 in fieldwork costs per survey could be saved by farmer participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the spring meeting of the British Ecological Society held at the Departments of Zoology and Botany in the University of Durham in Durham, England on March 29 to 31, 1955. A general account of zoological work in progress at Moor House was given by professor J. B. Cragg. J. A. Svendsen discussed the ecological studies on the earthworms associated with sheep dung at Moor House. It offers an overview of the group of papers on the ecology of litter fauna and flora.

Science–farming partnerships can improve our understanding of how land management behaviours sustain or enhance life‐sustaining soil ecosystems. However, it remains a challenge to establish partnerships between researchers and practitioners that complement the ways in which farmers acquire and value knowledge and can also advance soil science. A pilot study was conducted to explore these issues in relation to earthworm monitoring. It showed that farmers were interested in comparing their field results to research experiments to inform their decision‐making. Social media was used to support farmers' earthworm monitoring schemes, with a concomitant sampling of research experiments to create capacity for shared learning. Constructive feedback from the scientific community was sought using an online questionnaire. An Autumn 2018 survey generated 152 field analyses from farmlands in England, and 48% of participants' fields and the research experiment showed no evidence for earthworms being widespread and/or the presence of all three ecological groups of earthworms. A Spring 2019 survey generated earthworm population data from farmland soils around the world, amassing 11,464 earthworms assessed over 2,200 ha in the UK. A total of 12 scientists (from 30 questionnaire invitations) volunteered their time and expertise to support the survey. Conclusions helped to prioritise future improvements in earthworm monitoring, which should include photographs of earthworms for verification of the data, long‐term monitoring and integration with soil properties. Most (83%) perceived this earthworm survey would likely improve farmland soil health and so would recommend its use in the UK. The survey is being independently taken forward and used as a metric by both private and public stakeholders, demonstrating authentic knowledge transfer in soil science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study which seeks to measure the effects of copper on the Lumbricid Aporrectodea rosea using combined non-invasive cell isolation and neutral-red retention assay (NRR). It also described the combination of an analogous extraction technique combined with a modified NRR assay to incorporate the advantages of non-destructiveness into a rapid cost bioassay. The study used samples of the earthworm from uncontaminated grassland site in Cambridgeshire, Great Britain. Coelomocytes showed minimal trauma and possessed a viability of more than 90 percent that was assessed using the Eosin Y test using cell survivorship. The NRR time for coelomocytes was exposed to soil copper levels showing that the response of NRR was sensitive to low metal concentrations.

During clarification processes of raw water, a vast amount of by‐product known as "drinking water‐treatment residuals" (WTRs) are produced, being principally composed of hydroxides of the Al or Fe salts added during water treatment plus the impurities they remove. Aluminum‐based (Al‐WTR) and iron‐based (Fe‐WTR) materials were applied at 10% w/w to degraded, bare (unvegetated) soils from a restored coal mining site in central England (pH <3.9) to study their potential amelioration effects on earthworm mortality, biomass yield of seedling plants, and element concentrations in plant tissues, earthworm tissues, and soil solutions. A separate treatment with agricultural lime was also conducted for comparison to evaluate whether any observed improvements were attributable to the liming capacity of the WTRs. After completion of the trials, all samples were subjected to a wet–dry cycle, and the experiments were repeated (i.e., simulating longer‐term effects in the field). Both types of WTRs significantly increased the biomass of plants, and in some treatments, survival of earthworms was also enhanced compared to nonamended soils. Excess plant tissue element concentrations and element concentrations in soil solutions were reduced in amended soils. The implications are that adding WTRs to mining‐impacted soils is a potentially viable, sustainable, and low‐cost remediation method that could be used globally to improve the soil condition. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1277–1291. © 2020 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of the total arsenic content of a soil and its bioaccumulation by earthworms ( Lumbricus rubellus and Dendrodrilus rubidus) to the arsenic fraction bioaccessible to humans, measured using an in vitro physiologically-based extraction test (PBET), was investigated. Soil and earthworm samples were collected at 24 sites at the former arsenic mine at the Devon Great Consols (DGC) in southwest England (UK), along with an uncontaminated site in Nottingham, UK, for comparison. Analysis of soil and earthworm total arsenic via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was performed following a mixed acid digestion. Arsenic concentrations in the soil were elevated (204–9,025 mg kg−1) at DGC. The arsenic bioaccumulation factor (BAF) for both earthworm species was found to correlate positively with the human bioaccessible fraction (HBF), although the correlation was only significant ( P ≤ 0.05) for L. rubellus. The potential use of both in vitro PBETs and earthworms as complementary tools is explored as a holistic and multidisciplinary approach towards understanding risk at contaminated sites. Arsenic resistant earthworm species such as the L. rubellus populations at DGC are presented as a valuable tool for understanding risk at highly contaminated sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a visit to the Natural History Museum, London a rich unidentified earthworm material was found, collected in the early 1970s by Gasana N'Doli in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Elaborating this material resulted in recording seven Dichogaster species (Acanthodrilidae: Benhamiinae) of which two, Dichogaster (Diplothecodrilus) gasanai and D. (Dt.) paulclarki, are new to science. On the basis of the newly identified material a more complete description of D. (Dt.) foetida is given and D. (Dt). rubella is placed in its synonymy. Apart from the dichogastrids two little known Pygmaeodrilus species (Ocnerodrilidae), P. kiwuensis and P. modesutus, are also recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The taphonomy of invertebrates from 16th-century cesspits at St Saviourgate, York, was investigated. Earthworms, fly larvae and puparia are preserved through replication in calcium phosphate, a process facilitated by acidic cesspit pore water and by the presence of abundant organic matter, bones and shells. Features preserved by mineralization include muscles, blood vessels and setae. Non-mineralized invertebrate remains include puparia and beetles. Py–GC/MS (flash pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) revealed a very high level of preservation of structural biomolecules, with all the protein and chitin markers that are evident in the living forms still being detectable in the divalent remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer diet and body condition were compared in two farmland Song Thrush Turdus philomelos populations in south-east England. One population on mixed farmland was stable and the other on arable farmland was rapidly declining. Summer diet was dominated by earthworms, snails, beetles and insect larvae (mainly Coleoptera and Lepidoptera). In both populations there was a pronounced seasonal decline in the quality of the diet, with preferred earthworms dominating prey items during March–April and snails dominating during June and July. Dry weather during late summer was associated with reduced proportions of earthworms and snails, and increased proportions of spiders in the diet, and dry soil conditions had a weak negative influence on the body weights of chicks (in the arable population) and adults. Despite a tendency for earthworms to constitute a higher proportion of the diet in the stable population, and for snails to constitute a higher proportion of the diet in the declining population, the body condition of chicks and adults appeared to be unrelated to diet composition and did not differ between study populations. Changes in agricultural practices have probably caused a major reduction in the availability of key summer food resources for Song Thrushes on lowland farmland, and we speculate that breeding thrushes mitigate the impacts of food shortage on chicks by confining their nesting attempts to localities and periods where invertebrate food resources are adequate to raise a brood of young. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]