Opening A Can Of Worms: Serendipitous Discovery Reveals Earthworms More Diverse Than First Thought
ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2008) — Scientists have found that the UK's common or garden earthworms are far more diverse than previously thought, a discovery with important consequences for agriculture.
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BBSRC-funded scientists at Cardiff University, led by Dr Bill Symondson and performed in the laboratory by postdoctoral scientist Dr Andrew King and undergraduate student Ms Amy Tibble, have found that many of the common earthworm species found in gardens and on agricultural land are actually made up of a number of distinct species that may have different roles in food chains and soil structure and ecology.
This discovery was made when efforts to develop better tools to identify earthworm DNA in the guts of slug and worm-eating beetles produced some very unexpected results.
Dr Symondson said: "When we were working to find new tools to detect earthworm DNA we started getting results that were not really what we expected to see and that indicated the presence of several new earthworm species. After investigating this further we eventually found that there are significant numbers of what we call 'cryptic species'. These different species live in the same environment and have the same outward appearance, but do not interbreed and have clearly distinct DNA sequences."
"Earthworms play a major role in the agricultural environment because they are involved in many soil processes such as soil turnover, aeration and drainage, and the breakdown and incorporation of organic matter. For this reason, they have often been the subject of research into, for example, ecology and toxicology. It is vitally important that we know exactly which species we are studying, in case they respond differently from one another – to agrochemicals or heavy metals in the soil, for example." more
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