Earthworm Benefits

Dr. Mary Stromberger, Professor of Soil Microbiology at Colorado State University describes the many benefits of earthworms to the soil. “Once the rain passes and the water drains through the soil, the pores empty and in doing so that allows soils to become aerated. So these large pores also function as mechanisms for atmospheric gases to enter the soil. We have oxygen going into the soil and we can get gases escaping the soil through these boroughs like carbon dioxide from respiration from organisms that live in the soil. How densely populated is the soil with earthworms? That’s a great question. It varies on the organic matter content of the soil. The moisture regime of the environment.There are about 100 earthworms per square meter. That will make a lot of fishermen very happy. (Laughter). Earthworms are also producing casts. That's waste material passes through the earthworm and gets deposited in the soil and these cast materials are rich in degraded organic material.”