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Document an Occurrence
“Document” a location with earthworm.
To “document” an earthworm-free location you need to do 3 things
1) Write down the date and location of where you attempted to collect the earthworms.
The location information you report should include:
- the latitude & longitude of your site in decimal degrees (i.e. 44.98127 latitude and -93.34479 longitude).
- if you used your own hand held GPS unit to get the latitude & longitude of your site, then also tell us what 'datum' you used (i.e.NAD83, NAD27, WGS84).
- A good description of the directions to it is also helpful (ie. 100 yards into woodlands on the east side of country road 12, 1 mile south of the junction with Shilhon road) with a short description of the habitat type (Sugar maple forest, shrubland, Oak savanna, prairie, city park; etc.), soil type (sandy, clay, rocky, steep slopes, level, etc.) and conditions (old & undisturbed, heavily used, wet, dry, etc.). The more context information we have the more useful the data is!
Introduction to Locating Points: more details on what you need to know to generate good location data for your site or project!
2) Write down how you attempted to collect earthworms in your site.
- Mustard extraction
- Hand digging
- Flip & Strip
See instructions for how to conduct earthworm surveys for details on these sampling methods. You could also include a short description of the conditions where you found the earthworms you collected (ie. under a log, parking lot after rain, deep in soil, on the surface, etc.)
3) Send your information to...
Great Lakes Worm Watch
Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota
5013 Miller Trunk Hwy, Duluth, MN 55811