Search

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]

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]

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]