Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what surveys of earthworm populations and diversity in arable soils in England have been carried out since 1996, and for each project what was the contractor’s budget, and where the final report can be found on the gov.uk website.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra has not carried out any surveys of earthworm populations and diversity specifically in arable soils.
However, Defra carries out research on earthworms as part of a wider programme of research on sustainable land management because of their important role in developing soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics, and plant growth.
Defra has contributed funding to the Open Air Laboratory (OPAL) Soil and Earthworm Survey in England launched in 2012. Two technical reports detailing the analysis of the first set of results of the Soil and Earthworm Survey are publicly available on the website of Imperial College London.
Defra’s delivery partner Natural England has previously funded the London Natural History Museum to survey earthworms in a number of semi-natural sites across England and Scotland, but also included sampling from 6 arable sites. This work was captured in a report published by Natural England in April 2014 entitled “Earthworms in England: distribution, abundance and habitat”. The report is available on Natural England’s website, reference NECR145.
In 2014 Defra funded the establishment of the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (budget £4,111,184), supporting research into sustainable productive farming techniques, which includes current assessment of earthworm abundance under contrasting arable systems at the Allerton Project at Loddington.
