Alien earthworms changing ecology of Northeast forests
...ey say the threat to forests is real. Most of the earthworm species found in the Northeast are not native to the area. Grres and Amador are evaluating the environmental impact of the common nightcrawler, one of the region's 16 to 20 species of earthworms. While the spread of the worms in Rhode Island has no......inked to two factors: the presence of a non-native earthworm and a thinner forest floor. The forest floor at "e...s, respectively). To confirm that this non-native earthworm can make the forest floor thinner, Gundale added large quantities of the worm to soil cores in the l......ated a uniquerelationship between plant growth and earthworm castings under different levelsof CO2. The rich earthworm castings, which are more abundant in nutrients thansurrounding soils, are valuable resources for pla...