News
Worms can be too much of a good thing
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By CHLOE KIPLE
Capital News Service
LANSING — Wriggly soil-dwellers may not have the bad rep of some of their invasive counterparts but they do have the power to change entire ecosystems.
“It’s ingrained into our education that earthworms are good,” said Chuck Elzinga, assistant professor of biology at Michigan State University. “But the more earthworms you have, the worse it is.”
Now a recent study has found that an abundance of earthworms decreases the small plant matter scattered on the forest floor. By eating away at what scientists call “fine root biomass,” worms can significantly change the forest. The good news is that when worms decompose matter and convert it into carbon dioxide, the levels of the greenhouse gas will not necessarily increase with more worms in a given area. For now, worms are not a serious threat to climate change.