How does Climate Change Affect Earthworms?
By: Ethan Berger and Chloe
Abstract
Climate change not only affects all living things, but it is an
important topic to learn how it can even affect some of the
world's smallest organisms. The following study examines how
changes in temperature affect earthworms in there habitat.
Even changes at that small of a level can have an impact to
something on a larger scale. Scientists’ got this data from an
experiment that they did using an earthworm, and different
temperatures of soil. The scientists took the earthworm and
placed it into a pan with two sides of soil, and two different
temperatures. The scientists met with other researchers doing
the same experiment, and observed their methods to doing the
experiment with soda. Based on the results of this experiment, it
is important that we continue to research potential effects of
climate change might be on a larger scale.
For this group to perform this experiment they needed specific materials for it to be done
properly.
Materials
- Pan
- Soil
- Hot water
- Room temperature water
- snow
- Beakers
- popsicle sticks
- worms
Methods
1. The scientists first heated up water in a beaker for about 3 ½ min. in a microwave.
2. They then put 500 mL of soil into a beaker and poured the hot water into beaker.
3. Next, the scientists mixed the hot water and soil together till soil was moist. A
popsicle stick was used to stir and mix the two components together.
4. The scientists then put the hot soil on half of the pan.
5. *repeat steps for room temperature soil (except for number 1)
6. The scientists separated the room temperature soil and hot soil so there was a path
in the middle of the pan.
7. An earthworm was then placed on the path.
8. Next, the scientists carefully observed which side of the pan the worm prefered.
Preferred meant which soil mixture the earthworm rested upon.
9. (They did the same thing for cold soil and warm soil)
10.The scientists also repeated steps six (60 through eight (8) using cold soil and room
temperature soil. Observations of the worms preference were documented as well.
Introduction
This group of scientists knew that climate change is a big
subject so they narrowed it down to global warming and
global cooling. This group tested “how does the temperature
of the soil affect earthworms?” They felt that the
temperature of the soil was important because if global
warming was happening they felt they knew what the
earthworms would do. They found out that if earthworms
stay higher to the surface during global warming or winter,
the earthworms will die because of the strong heat and or
extreme cold. But if the earthworms burrow deep enough,
somewhere around 6 ft the worms can survive. During
climate change the soil can also be affected by different levels
of rainfall. Too much rain may cause the earthworms to
drown if the soil is saturated. Too little rain may cause the
earthworms to dry out and die. So that is another reason
how earthworms can die during big changes in the climate.
Also in their experiment, the scientists tested whether the
earthworm preferred room temperature soil versus hot soil,
and whether the earthworm preferred room temperature soil
versus cold soil. They predicted that the worms would prefer
the room temperature soil over hot or cold soil. They
predicted this because the worms are not exposed to hot soil
and cold soil as much as they are to room temperature soil.
Results
In this experiment, a group of scientists wanted to test the effects
of an earthworm when having different temperatures of soil.The
scientists conducted this experiment to see if climate change affected
the earthworm’s burrowing time and/or what side the earthworm
liked liked best. They tested with different types of soil, cold soil,
warm soil and regular soil. The scientists had many expectations for
the experiment. They thought the worm would move to one side
quickly, but they were wrong. The earthworm took its time going to Discussion
one side or the other, so the scientists put the earthworm on one side When the scientists performed this experiment they
to observe its reaction, then the scientists put the earthworm on the noticed some different trends in their data. When the
other side to then observe those reactions. They did that for all the experiment was performed they noticed that the worms
prefered the regular room temperature soil over the warm
different types of soil.
Worm
Warm soil
Hot soil
Cold soil
Worm 1
No reaction
Strong reaction
medium reaction
Worm 2
medium reaction
died
strong reaction
Worm 3
No reaction
strong reaction
medium reaction
Worm 4
no reaction
strong reaction
strong reaction
Work Cited
https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/does-climate-changeaffect-soil/
http://www.globalissues.org/article/172/climate-change-affectsbiodiversity
http://animals.mom.me/effect-temperature-earthworm-population6147.htm
https://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/WormNotes3.html
soil or cold soil. This was because the worms were not as
used to cold soil and warm soil as they were the regular
room temperature soil. The worms were not as used to the
warm and cold soil because they don’t experience it as
much a scientist stated. The trends in their data were that
once they put the worm on the cold or warm soil their
reaction was mild. This meant that the trend was the
worms did not have a huge reaction to the cold and warm
soil but it was the same kind of reaction. In the past
decade, Wisconsin has experienced major increases in
temperatures. As you can see in the picture above, most of
Wisconsin has been blistering during the summer time.
Because of this, the animals and earthworms are struggling
to live in the heat and are dying. The scientist’s
experiment, shows on a small scale, what global warming
and the temperature of soil does to the environment and
the species of living things that rely on it.