Earthworm and Habitat Studies

General Earthworm Population Survey: Instructions

In the general earthworm population survey we have two objectives:

1) Determine which ecological groups of earthworms you have at your study site.

2) Determine the relative abundance of earthworms in each ecological group.

There are 4 different earthworm sampling methods you could use to sample the earthworm populations for the general earthworm population survey. If you are going to use only one sampling method at your site, the hand sampling or liquid extraction methods are the best for both identifying the ecological groups present and estimating the relative abundance of earthworms in the different ecological groups. However, a combination of sampling methods is ideal since each tends to emphasize different ecological groups (see earthworm sampling methods for details).

NOTE: There may be some sites where there are no earthworms of any kind and that would be of great interest to us! So, be sure to report negative results!

Once you have collected your earthworms, sort them into adults vs. juveniles (sexually mature adult earthworms have a clitellum).
For adult earthworms, count the number in each of the ecological groups.
For juvenile earthworms, count the number of pigmented vs. non-pigmented individuals.

See Earthworm Identification for more details on how to identify your earthworms.

If you choose to preserve your earthworms for future identification, How To Preserve Earthworms for best results.

E-mail us with any questions. HAVE FUN!

General Earthworm Population Survey: Data Sheet

1. What sampling method(s) did you use? (check all that apply)

   	flip & strip
   	hand sample
   	liquid extraction
   	midden counts

2. How much area was sampled for earthworms?

   Flip & Strip:

   Hand Sample:

   Liquid Extraction:

   Midden Counts:

3. How many adult earthworms (those with a clitellum) were collected in each ecological group?

   Epigeic:

   Endogeic:

   Anecic:

4. How many juvenile earthworms were collected in each group?

   Pigmented:

   Unpigmented:

5. Did you preserve any of the earthworms?

   Yes

   No

   
   

   If you tried to identify them to species, what species do you think you have?