Tracking earthworms

One thing that I'm really keen to do is to be able to look into the soil to see how earthworms are behaving. We could learn lots about earthworm ecology and, in many experiments, check that the earthworms are still there!

X-ray tomography and also acoustics are possible answers to this issue.

Dr Ian Farr is currently attempting to listen to earthworms in soil so that we can track their movements in a

project funded by the Leverhulme trust (ORPG-5184).

In the mean time you can download an X-ray tomography movie showing earthworms in their burrows courtesy of Craig Sturrock, Senior research fellow in X-ray computed tomography at the Hounsfield Facility for Rhizosphere Research at the University of Nottingham.