Mark Hodson

@markehodson.bsky.social

Soil scientist, earthworm ecologist, academic at University of York

Tonight's "Worm moon" - so called as it's the first moon of Spring and is supposed to mark the time when earthworms become active again after the colder winter months. The earthworms that we've been sampling obviously haven't read the script!

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First paper of the year out today - 2nd paper from Xiao Xiao's PhD. We show that natural weathering of #microplastics increases potential sorption of Cd to them, that #biofilm development is important in this and that PLA (a biodegradable plastic) is more sorptive than PE.

Biodegradable microplastics adsorb more Cd than conventional microplastic and biofilms enhance their adsorption

Biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) mulch has been developed to replace conventional polyethylene (PE) mulch in agriculture to reduce plastic pollutio…

sciencedirect.com

Couldn't make it to #BES2024 but we had a busy day using all eight hours of daylight (and a final sample supplemented by torch light) sampling with Ben at Church Farm AHDB / ADAS legume and compost trials to try and boost #earthworm populations. Here's Ben with an earthworm for scale.

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Lake Tadcaster now back - will be interesting to re-survey the #earthworms once the #flooding recedes as part of our @LeverhulmeTrust project on #earthworms, #flooding and #climate change.

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Mark Hodson@markehodson.bsky.social · 2y ago

Back from a sunny day checking out sampling sites for our new #Leverhulme project "Sink or Swim" about #earthworms and #flooding. Ben is sampling on the floor of "Lake Tadcaster" next to the John Smith's brewery. Users of the A64 in the UK will know the field and be amazed it wasn't under water.