Earthworm poo could grow to be a tremendously valuable dating tool
Over a hundred years after Darwin’s fastest-selling book [1] hit the racks, scientists have discovered we are underestimating the earthworm’s share towards the international carbon period. Mark Hodson explores.
Science careers are funny things. Fifteen years back I finished my geology PhD on why some igneous stones regarding the tip that is southern of have actually stripes. During the time, earthworm poo had never entered my head.
If some body had explained then that ten years or more later Denise Lambkin, my postdoc, and I also would invest significant amounts of time sifting through earthworm poo i might have thought these were having fun.
But my tale begins much sooner than this. It certainly started in 1881. After a lot more than 40 many years of observation, Darwin finished and published their last work that is greatThe development of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with findings on the habits’. As an illustration of Victorian reading tastes, the written guide offered quicker than ‘ From the origin of species’, escort girl Honolulu at the least to start with.
My collision with Darwin’s great text actually dates back to 2002. I’d been taking care of exactly exactly how pollution that is metal contaminated soils impacts earthworms for a simple 2 yrs whenever I found myself at an International Earthworm Symposium in Cardiff.