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This is an in-person lecture held at the Education Center. REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
The earthworm community of central New York includes native species and non-native species from both Europe and Asia. Despite the widespread familiarity of earthworms generally, there are many things that we do not know about earthworms in natural environments. This presentation will focus on what we do and do not know about invasive "jumping worms," which are quickly becoming a problem in northern North America.
Dr. Tim McCay BS, University of Florida, 1991; MS, The Pennsylvania State University, 1994; MS (Statistics, 1998), PhD (Ecology, 1999), University of Georgia. Dr. McCay is the Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair in Regional Studies; Dunham Beldon Jr. Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. His research concerns the soil ecology of the forest floor. He is particularly interested in the shrews, mammals that rule over this system as top predators, and earthworms, which consume and break down plant material more effectively than other decomposers.
Dr. McCay is currently working to better understand the factors that limit the distributions of various earthworm species in the American Northeast. The earthworm fauna of New York State consists of about 30 species — some of which are native to North America and others that were introduced from Europe and Asia. Many of these introduced earthworms are expanding their ranges (and thus are a potential concern faced by managers of natural areas). He collaborates with others in the Jumping Worm Outreach, Research, and Management Working Group (JWORM) to better understand the dangers of invasive jumping worms and how to control them. Little is known about the native earthworms, such as Eisenoides lonnbergi, found in the Northeast. He also leads a collaborative project, which uses the NSF-funded Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN), aimed at understanding earthworm distributions across North America.