Earthworms Aren't Native to Most of North America, and Now They're Threatening Boreal Forests
www.outdoorlife.com
What could be more innocuous than an earthworm? Plenty. Non-native earthworms are damaging healthy soil, native plants, and carbon storage.
  • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
    0·
    5 months ago

    I think you literally made 100% of the first half of this up

    There are no earthworms that used to be here; read the article. Crazy worms do exactly the same thing (remove the layer of leaf litter that traditional NA boreal forests depend on), they just spread a little more quickly which makes it a little more of a problem. But the essential issue is the same. And I don’t think killing either one of them makes any difference at all; humans will not encounter either one on anything even remotely similar to the scale that would make going after them on an individual level a useful thing to do.

    Edit: Okay I am totally wrong; the article talks about northern forests only, and what I’m saying isn’t true of the US / North America as a whole.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      5 months ago

      There are no earthworms that used to be here; read the article.

      Admittedly I didn’t, because I already know this.

      But here you go:

      During the last ice age, which ended roughly 10,000 years ago, a massive ice sheet covered what’s roughly the northern third of the continent. Scientists think that this most recent glaciation killed off the earthworms that may have inhabited the area.

      Only had to get to second paragraph…