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Review of earthworms as ecological engineers in a complex ecosystem.
Briones, M. J. I., Ostle, N. J., and Pearce, T. G. 2008. Stable isotopes reveal that the calciferous gland of earthworms is a CO2-fixing organ. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40:554–557.
Ability of worms to extract carbon from air extends role in soil improvement.
Brown, G. G., Feller, C., Blanchart, E., Deleporte, P., and Chernyanskii, S. S. 2003. With Darwin, earthworms turn intelligent and become human friends. Pedobiologia 47:924–933.
Changes in attitudes towards earthworms before and after Darwin’s day.
Canti, M. G. 2003. Earthworm activity and archaeological stratigraphy: A review of products and processes. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:135–148.
How worm activity disturbs archaeological sites and blurs the record of history.
Edwards, C. A., ed. 2004. Earthworm ecology. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Exhaustive review of ecology, physiology, behaviour, and distribution of worms.
Evans, C. 2009. Small agencies and great consequences: Darwin’s archaeology. Antiquity 83:475–488.
How archaeological digs showed the power of earthworms to inter.
Gabet, E. J., Reichman, O. J., and Seabloom, E. W. 2003. The effects of bioturbation on soil processes and sediment transport. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 31:249–273.
Mites, mice, elephants, roots, and more assist earthworms in disturbing the soil.
Glaser, B. 2006. Prehistorically modified soils of central Amazonia: A model for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 362:187–196.
The terra preta soils of South America as a model for use of biochar in farming.
Johnson, D. L., Domier, J. E. J., and Johnson, D. N. 2005. Reflections on the nature of soil and its biomantle. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95:11–31.
The relative roles of chemistry and biology in making and improving soil.
Meysman, F. J. R., Middelburg, J. J., and Heip, C. H. R. 2006. Bioturbation: A fresh look at Darwin’s last idea. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:688–695.
How disturbing the surface led to the Cambrian Explosion of life.
Montgomery, D. R. 2007. Dirt: The erosion of civilizations. Berkeley: University of California Press.
How neglect of the soil led to the collapse of empires, from prehistory to the present.
Roulet, N., and Moore, T. M. 2006. Environmental chemistry: Browning the waters. Nature 444:283–284.
Recent carbon loss from British soils.
Stuerzenbaum, S. R., Andre, J., Kille, P., and Morgan, A. J. 2009. Earthworm genomes, genes, and proteins: The (re)discovery of Darwin’s worms. Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences, Series B 276:789–797.
The taxonomy, ecology, distribution, and evolution of the world’s worms.
Velando, A., Eiroa, J., and Domínguez, J. 2008. Brainless but not clueless: Earthworms boost their ejaculates when they detect fecund nonvirgin partners. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 275:1067–1072.
Hermaphrodite worms assess mating history of partners before inserting sperm.
Wilkinson, K., Tyler, A., Davidson, D., and Grieve, I. 2006. Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil. Antiquity 309:658–670.
Patterns of loss of radioactive fallout reveal extent of disturbance by ploughs.
Ashmole, P., and Ashmole, M. J. 2000. St. Helena and Ascension Island: A natural history. Oswestry, England: Anthony Nelson.
A tale of extinction and attempts at conservation on Darwin’s penultimate island.
Causton, C. E., Peck, S. B., Sinclair, B. J., Roque-Albelo, L., Hodgson, C. J., and Landry, B. 2006. Alien insects: Threats and implications for conservation of Galapagos Islands. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99:121–143.
One of the most important threats to Galapagos wildlife.
Ellison, A. M., Gotelli, N. J., Brewer, J. S., Knietel, J., Miller, T. E., Cochran-Stafira, L., Worley, A. C., and Zamora, R. 2003. Carnivorous plants as model ecological systems. Advances in Ecological Research 33:1–74.
Ecology and extinction risk of endangered insectivorous plants.
Ghazoul, J. 2005. Buzziness as usual? Questioning the global pollination crisis. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:367–373.
Opposed views on the fate of bees in the modern agricultural world.
Goulson, D. 2003. Effects of introduced bees on native ecosystems. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 34:1–26.
Positive and negative effects of the global spread of European bees.
Hendrix, P. F. 2006. Biological invasions belowground: Earthworms as invasive species. Biological Invasions 8:1201–1204.
Earthworms away from home as pests and agents of ecological change.
King, T. E., Parkin, E. J., Swinfield, G., Cruciani, F., Scozzari, R., Rosa, A., Lim, S. K., Xue, Y., Tyler-Smith, C., and Jobling, M. A. 2007. Africans in Yorkshire? The deepestrooting clade of the Y phylogeny within an English genealogy. European Journal of Human Genetics 15:288–293.
Forgotten English outbreeding: a black Yorkshireman with many white descendants.
Kull, T., Kindlmann, P., Hutchings, M. J., and Primac, R. B. 2006. Conservation biology of orchids: Introduction to the special Issue. Biological Conservation 129:1–3.
The global plight of orchids and some possible solutions.
Lasker, G. W., and Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. 2001. The genetic structure of English villages: Surname diversity changes between 1976 and 1997. Annals of Human Biology 28:546–553.
Increased outbreeding in the late twentieth century as shown by surname patterns.
Moore, L. T., McEvoy, B., Cape, E., Simms, K., and Bradley, D. G. 2006. A Y chromosome signature of hegemony in Gaelic Ireland. American Journal of Human Genetics 78:334–338.
Ancient differences in male mating success in Ireland leave traces today.
Prentis, P. J., Wilson, J. R. U., Dormontt, E. E., Richardson, D. M., and Lowe, A. J. 2008. Adaptive evolution in invasive species. Trends in Plant Science 13:288–294.
How invading plants such as the Oxford Ragwort evolve in their new homes.
Richardson, D. M., and Pysek, P. 2006. Plant invasions: Merging the concepts of species invasiveness and community invasibility. Progress in Physical Geography 30:409–431.
How some plants invade, and how some places can keep invaders out.
Scapoli, C., Mamolini, E., Carrieri, A., Rodriguez-Larralde, A., and Barrai, A. 2007. Surnames in western Europe: A comparison of the subcontinental populations through isonymy. Theoretical Population Biology 71:37–48.
High outbreeding in industrial countries measured by shared surnames on marriage.
Skirbekk, V. 2008. Fertility trends by social status. Demographic Research 18:145–180.
Reduction in variation in family size with increasing social equality.
Wade, M. J., and Shuster, S. M. 2004. Estimating the strength of sexual selection from Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA diversity. Evolution 58:1613–1616.
How the strength of sexual selection in humans has decreased over the centuries.