A new Mountain Lake features the research of 含羞草传媒 biology professor and four students who spent the summer studying invasive earthworms and their impact on native species in the Adirondacks.
鈥淚ts mission, to boldly go where few, if any, worm researchers have gone before; to seek out and identify earthworms of all kinds, wherever the professor and his intrepid students can find them,鈥 said PBS host Ed Kanze.
McCay explains that the research is part of a collaborative study with 20 schools in eastern North America, sampling earthworms in different habitats, looking at the characteristics of each habitat, and then doing an analysis of the factors that may be limiting the spread of certain earthworm species.
Zachary Cardell 鈥15 , Hailey Elder 鈥16, Nga Nguyen 鈥15, and Eric Moore 鈥15, are seen in the PBS footage and are recognized for their efforts in the field.
鈥淭he students brave mosquitoes, deer flies, and plenty of dirt in order to catch earthworms, and then back at 含羞草传媒 use microscopes to study the fine points of the animals captured,鈥 Kanze said.
鈥淓arthworm dispersal is really poorly understood. Almost nobody has studied it,鈥 McCay said. 鈥淭here have been no large studies of earthworms of the Adirondacks to date.鈥
McCay has been featured for his earthworm research and how it ties together with research conducted by geography professor .