25 Sep, 2026 The next frontier in worm research is to be able to visualise (map) the locations of worms, in-situ, and if possible, at the paddock scale. We know so much more about the movements of ants, spiders, beetles, bees/pollinators and the above ground invertebrates. Yet so little about everything below ground.
Frankly its a blight on us all we don't know more. Okay maybe that's a bit dramatic, but for a group of organisms that are so important to soil fertility and health, we know so little about their movements specifically. Don't get me wrong, many studies have sampled worms out in the field.
So we do know about their abundance and diversity in a broad range of ecosystems, especially within agricultural landscapes. But it's the movement of these worms, both individually and collectively that I wish to understand more. To research this we would have to make some sort of worm detector.
Being able to map, not just of one species, but a community of worms in a paddock would be highly valuable data. Currently to my knowledge, there is no method able to capture such worm data. Its a gap in the research that I am hoping with modern techniques, we may soon be able to investigate further.
My tiny lit review on worm phenomics... The only study I found that even attempted to record/map the movements of earthworms, in-situ, both as individuals and collectively was by Mather and Christensen (1988) in Denmark. They studied Lumbricus terrestris, a widely found globally distributed earthworm species (including here in Australia).
They studied this species as it regularly surfaces, especially after rain events and forms trails, making it easier to observe/record movements. To my knowledge, this is presently the closest we have got to mapping/visualising worm movements. There probably are more papers on earthworm phenomics, I just haven't had a thorough enough look.
The two authors of this study, Janice Mather and Ole Christensen, the legends that they are, then did a similar experiment 6 years later, researching the individual movements of the invasive New Zealand Flatworm, Arthurdendyus triangulatus, in the Faroe Islands, Denmark. This study differed from the former, in that in the previous study, they measured worm trails using string, but in the latter (in 1994) flatworms were placed on black plastic and their mucus trails were measured with aid of conveniently spaced water droplets. These were the only two papers I found with any data on the distances traveled by individual worms and both still only measured and recorded above ground movements.
With so many advancements in technology, along with advancements in the entire the field of phenomics since these papers, I really feel like its about time we develop some new techniques/methods. As an aside: How far can an individual earthworm travel? Well on the night of the 23rd and 24th of October 1987, thirty L. terrestris travelled a mean minimum distance of 9.0 m (with a s.d. 3.6 m). The distance individual worms travelled ranged from 3.8 m - 19.3 m in the study area.
However, it was because the worms trails moved out of their defined study area (a dirt road) and continued into neighbouring paddocks, that made them unable to measure the full lengths of all worm trails. Further, disturbance made by tractors and footprints also damaged some worm trails. Thus, the estimates are conservative and this is why they are using this mean minimum distance value.
In short, we know the average L. terrestris can travel at least 9.0m per night (n=30). What is possible? Ideas on developing such a technology Immediately I thought of Li DAR. Could we use Li DAR? No, probably not.
But instead of sending out pulses of light (which cannot penetrate the ground), what if we use microwaves, or possibly some other wavelength of light? Microwaves is what they use in ground penetrating radar. I am currently unsure if ground penetrating radar has enough resolution to detect worms. It's difficult as we need to col...
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing