Comment by pfdietz
1 day ago
I was also going to say, earthworms will slowly bury objects (Darwin wrote on this), but that region didn't have earthworms at the time.
1 day ago
I was also going to say, earthworms will slowly bury objects (Darwin wrote on this), but that region didn't have earthworms at the time.
TIL that earthworms in the American northeast are largely invasive species. That's very surprising to me
Are they problematic though? There were earthworms there before the ice age I think.
There's invasive species that are hugely problematic, converting whole forests from fungal decomposition of leaves to bacterial (changing the soil conditions quite a lot).
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North...
Also learning about this today. Apparently they're bad for ecosystems that had evolved with slowly decaying organic matter (because they eat it all quickly). In particular forests.
At least in my education they have always been framed as a vital component of the ecosystem and a sign of healthy soil. It's interesting to learn that's not true.
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