IonE Mini-grant for earthworm outreach

Tyler Baumann’s review paper project received an mini-grant ($3,000) from IonE. Congratulations, Tyler!

Invasive earthworms are widespread ecosystem engineers that create cascading environmental disturbances when dispersed. Most research seeks to understand the effects of invasion, but information on human’s role in dispersing exotic earthworms is scattered. Earthworm dispersal and introduction involves diverse human activities such as industry, recreation, and development. Thus, understanding human vectors requires communication across interdisciplinary stakeholders and scholars. This project seeks to reach out to stakeholders and synthesize information into a journal manuscript that critically reviews human’s role in global-scale earthworm invasion, assesses how dispersal varies with human culture, and provides insight into future earthworm invasion with a changing climate.