7-20 FB Earthworms and Ag

 University of Idaho soil scientist Jodi Johnson-Maynard talks about the recent discovery of the giant Palouse earthworms. These earthworms are an unusual feature of the native prairie she studies to better understand the ecology of how these sites function.

“Earthworms are a very positive thing to have in soils of course/ As you mentioned they do aerate the soil, they create burrows which allows water to infiltrate readily into the soils and whenever you have more infiltration, then you have less runoff and erosion. They improve nutrient cycling, they can increase nitrogen availability through their feeding habits and breaking up litter and delivering it to the microbes that decompose it. So they serve a lot of functions and they can improve the soils quality in terms of the chemical and physical processes. So the giant Palouse earthworm should do all those things, there’s ecology in its habits, burrowing and feeding habits, just like any earthworm. What we don’t know is specifically, is there anything different about this earthworm, does it have any sort of connection with plants are there any specific effects on the microbial community and we just don’t know those details very well compared to what we know about the more common exotic species that we typically find.”