Video summary
In every acre of healthy soil, there can exist up to 1.4 million earthworms that play a vital role in transforming the ground into a resilient ecosystem. These creatures do more than just inhabit their environment; they actively transition it by processing old organic matter and decaying plant materials while cycling essential nutrients for future plant growth. Anthony Bly, a soils field specialist from South Dakota, highlights how these worms are crucial for soil formation, noting that large burrowers like nightcrawlers create deep tunnels that improve physical properties such as water infiltration and air exchange. Their presence allows the landscape to act as a massive storage tank for water during dry periods, ensuring crops have access to moisture when needed most.
The video provides vivid examples of how earthworms function as ecological engineers by dragging surface debris like corn leaves down into their burrows to decay underground. This process not only serves as food for the worms but also creates rich pockets of castings, or worm manure, within the soil profile. Using a specialized latex rubber core technique, Bly demonstrates that these tunnels can extend several feet deep, effectively mixing dark surface material with lighter subsoil in what amounts to nature's version of tillage. This biological activity eliminates the need for mechanical disturbance while simultaneously enhancing soil structure and fertility through constant movement and nutrient redistribution.
Beyond their role as decomposers, earthworms are instrumental in warming the soil and developing its overall health by creating channels that facilitate the flow of water and air to plant roots. The transcript emphasizes that healthy grasslands serve as a model for these benefits, where robust worm populations thrive due to practices like crop rotation and cover cropping. By mimicking the conditions found in these pristine environments through sustainable farming methods, agricultural lands can maintain strong soil health systems that support vigorous root development and long-term productivity without relying on intensive mechanical intervention.
Ultimately, the video concludes with a playful yet profound appreciation for earthworms as indispensable partners in agriculture who work tirelessly to enrich the soil while helping raindrops do their job more effectively. The speaker's humorous dialogue about preferring to be an earthworm underscores the reality that these organisms are alive and well in fields managed with good health systems, providing essential services that keep the land productive. Their ability to create a living infrastructure within the ground ensures that soils remain fertile, aerated, and capable of sustaining life even as environmental conditions fluctuate.
Read the full video transcript
In every acre of healthy soil, there can
be up to 1.4 million earthworms.
Those earthworms serve a big purpose. Uh
of course, the soil is their home, but
they're transitioning their home with a
lot of their activities, uh working on
old organic matter and decaying plant
materials and cycling those nutrients
uh for other plant growth and also
improving the soil physical properties.
[music]
Um those worms are vitally important
uh for helping the soil form and become
more resilient.
Good morning. My name is Anthony Bly.
I'm a soils [music] field specialist
with SDSU Extension
and we run a family farm here in Eastern
Minnehaha County, South Dakota.
I'm
really familiar with the the burrows,
the deep burrowers, the nightcrawlers.
Um you know, there's a burrow about two
every square foot. So, there's a good
80, 90,000 of those out there. And those
are the very largest worms and and uh
they're kind of territorial, if you
will, and and [music] like to space out
a little bit. But um the other
horizontal burrows are smaller worms and
there's just, you know, when you take a
shovel full of soil at the right time of
year, you can find three, four, five of
them easily
in a shovel full of soil. So,
>> [music]
>> yeah, that 1.4 million number is is is
is totally possible. I don't know anyone
that's really counted all of them, but,
you know, it's it's an estimation, of
course.
So, here we have an earthworm burrow
and we have three corn leaves that have
been dragged down the burrow by this
nightcrawler. And I'm going to gently
kind of
pull them out. Okay? See how it's
decayed and gone?
There's number two
coming out right there.
And then here's number [music] three
coming out.
Totally gone.
So, it's burrow
is right under this what we [music] call
midden.
And by the way, this midden is full of
cast.
Full of earthworm manure.
And so, here's the burrow right there.
Right kind of down from my finger. It's
very fragile.
And uh it's actually [music]
very moist here.
Okay? So, what we what we see [music] is
we see water coming up from down below
through that burrow.
Okay, here I'm holding a a soil core, if
you will, of the soil surface. It's 6 in
in diameter.
Uh we inserted that soil uh core um into
the soil and then we
filled it with latex rubber.
And we covered the top to keep it from
drying out and gave it some time for
that latex rubber to follow the
earthworm burrows down in the soil. And
here we see a very
uh well, a shallower burrow here about 2
ft down, but then they're very robust
burrow here. And uh I'm roughly 5 ft 6
in tall and it's almost touching the
ground. And so,
uh a way to document
um that nightcrawler activity in the
soil and how deep that worm goes. And I
know you can't see this on the camera,
but there's very fine
hairs on this latex rubber. And And we
believe as soil scientist friends and
myself believe that that was [music]
actually root hairs from crops that were
penetrating the side of that burrow and
somehow the latex filled those as well.
And so, a great example of of how
earthworms [music] can impact the soil.
Okay, right here is an earlier activity
of nightcrawler
work. [music]
This leaf, you can see the end of it is
all all shriveled up and it's [music]
actually still attached to the soil
where the nightcrawler had dragged that
down or pulled that down the burrow. And
I think the best example is right here.
This activity [music] probably occurred
in the last 10 days
and we can see two
three corn leaves
that this nightcrawler is is pulling
down in its burrow. That is protecting
[music]
its its home, its burrow,
um
and it's it's
it's decaying in its burrow. And it's
it's food, if you will, for that worm.
And that is a great
great example of
of ecological engineers, biological
engineers, whatever word you want to use
to describe this earthworm activity, but
it's it's alive and well in fields with
good soil health systems.
These crop lands
being strong with soil health because of
the rotation, the cover crops, the the
adherence to soil health,
we're trying to mimic what we will see
out in the grasslands.
Healthy grasslands hold the ultimate
example of soil health that we have.
Earthworms serve a huge purpose [music]
in warming the soil and developing the
soil. Their burrows and tunnels um
>> [music]
>> help provide channels and uh
pores for water and air to exchange in
the soil. [music]
Uh they improve water infiltration
uh
exponentially [music]
when they're present. I mean, they're
it's it's a huge impact and [music]
increase on water infiltration. And
that's what we need to keep that water
in the landscape [music] so that when
the environment dries out, uh we have a
whole
>> [music]
>> uh larger storage uh tank, if you will,
for water in the soil. And [music]
and so that air exchange is good as well
because our our plant roots need an
[music] aerobic or an air-filled
environment for them to develop and
grow. Uh and and so these earthworms,
[music] you know, have been called
ecological engineers. And that's exactly
what they're doing in our soil. [music]
They're doing our tillage for us so that
we don't have to do the tillage. Uh we
see evidences of that [music] with dark
soil material carried down deep in the
soil and light soil from down deep
brought up to the surface. So that
mixing
um is is very good and it's it's
actually nature's way of doing tillage
in the soil.
>> If I could choose a earthworm or a
raindrop, I would be an earthworm so I
can make the soil richer.
>> Earthworm because
I get to
work more and kind of help the raindrop.
>> I would be a earthworm
because a raindrop uh right when it hits
the ground, it's basically dead.
>> I'd rather be um a raindrop
because it would help the soil. I think
worms like
the water drips in their homes. It like
the ground absorbs the water.
>> I think they might like wiggle around.
And when they eat the soil, then it goes
through [music] their body and they they
poop it out and it might be like richer.
>> I would like to have two heads.
And no butt.
And eat and poop all day.