4 ms·
Fun fact: Earthworms were all but wiped out in North America during the last ice age. The earthworms in North American soil today are almost all European. Th
by beloch 3y ago
Fun fact:
Earthworms were all but wiped out in North America during the last ice age. The earthworms in North American soil today are almost all European. They're still spreading out and moving North in Canada.
Mindblowing Implication:
Prior to the introduction of European earthworms, dead leaves and other detritus just sat on the surface and accumulated until it was several feet deep in forests. Native plants often took advantage of this slowly decomposing source of nutrients. Earthworms break that detritus down into humus much faster, often starving native ground-cover plants and feeding invasive species. We're still watching a massive change to ecology, that started at the time of European contact, slowly unfold.
- tomrod 3y agoWould love to read more about this.
- acmiyaguchi 3y agoI was a bit suspicious of the claim, but found evidence that this might actually be the case. Here's a page focused on research related to non-native earthworms in North America that seems like a good start: https://www.nyisri.org/2016/09/underground-invaders-impacts-implications-non-native-earthworms-north-america/ https://www.nyisri.org/2016/09/underground-invaders-impacts-...
- limitedfrom 3y agoHere's a Wikipedia page for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...
- teruakohatu 3y agoThat is mind blowing. New Zealand where I live, an extremely remote island, has over 200 species of earthworm most of which are native and only found in NZ. Only about 15% of NZ was covered by ice during the ice age.
- hackermeows 3y agoYou make an interesting point about the terms "native" and "invasive." The lines between what's considered native or foreign in nature and in demographics can be blurry, especially over long periods of time. The earthworm story highlights how nature simply evolves, and labeling things as native or invasive can mirror some societal attitudes. These words can carry some deep biases.
- science4sail 3y agoOver enough time, the invasives become natives. After all, no one seriously argues that the Anglo-Saxons are invasive to England and that Britain should be given back to the Welsh.
- Dalewyn 3y ago>The lines between what's considered native or foreign in nature and in demographics can be blurry, especially over long periods of time. It's quite simple, actually. If humans had any part in introducing a species to a given location which wasn't there before, it is invasive. If humans had no part in the aforementioned process, it is native or at the very least natural.
- ObscureScience 3y agoThat is not the definion I'm accustomed to. To me, invasive means both "non-native" and causing an issue to the indeginous ecosystem. Found an article which seem to mirror my understanding of the terms: "Invasive: a species of plant or animal that outcompetes other species, causing damage to an ecosystem." https://lakes.grace.edu/native-non-native-invasive-species/ https://lakes.grace.edu/native-non-native-invasive-species/
- Baeocystin 3y ago11,000 years isn't millions of years, and there are hundreds of native North American species of earthworms. The invasive species are a problem, but detritus accumulation is not something that North American flora evolved with until an eyeblink's worth of evolutionary time.
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoHasn't it been shown that evolution can occur over 1000's of years, but of course over millions it would diverge even further. Can something that was only here 11,000's still qualify as native? It is pretty amazing how things are still evolving. Like the comment below about how the European Worms are still migrating, so the entire ecosystem is still adapting and changing. So we are seeing evolution in progress, and maybe 10,000 years from now, someone will be arguing that the European worms are more 'native', and these new Mars worms brought back from the colonies are really invasive.
- Baeocystin 3y agoEvolution is a continuous process, so yes, there's some degree of change every generation. It is also true that 11,000 years is a very short time on the scale of speciation. It's probably most useful to think of worms coming back in to the soil as another stage of progression, just like the stages of a forest returning after a fire, volcano or the like.
- thunderbong 3y agoAnother interesting thing I got to know recently is that during the Carboniferous period, trees would grow old and fall but not rot since the bacteria and fungi had not yet evolved the enzymes to digest them [0]: [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Rocks_and_coal:~:text=Based%20on%20a%20genetic%20analysis%20of%20basidiomycetes%2C%20it%20was%20proposed%20that%20large%20quantities%20of%20wood%20were%20buried%20during%20this%20period%20because%20animals%20and%20decomposing%20bacteria%20and%20fungi%20had%20not%20yet%20evolved%20enzymes%20that%20could%20effectively%20digest%20the%20resistant%20phenolic%20lignin%20polymers%20and%20waxy%20suberin%20polymers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Rocks_and_coal:~....
- cassepipe 3y agoI read that too and I read it in another (imho great) nautilus article : https://nautil.us/issue/86/energy/why-birds-can-fly-over-mount-everest https://nautil.us/issue/86/energy/why-birds-can-fly-over-mou...
- jimvdv 3y agoThat links returns 404 for me :(
- doctor_phil 3y agohttps://nautil.us/why-birds-can-fly-over-mount-everest-237864/ https://nautil.us/why-birds-can-fly-over-mount-everest-23786...
- olau 3y agoThe Wikipedia link you provide states just after your highlight that this theory has been challenged.
- simmerup 3y agoI imagine in a few million years people will see the same effect for plastics