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A research project to understand how climate change is affecting UK earthworms has begun.

Prof Mark Hodson, a soil scientist in the environment and geography department at University of York, is one of a team examining how weather events, such as flooding, change the number and behaviour of the creatures.

The academic said there was concern that worms, which breathe through their skin, were at risk from drowning

Prof Hodson said as well as helping to keep soils healthy, the animals were a part of the food chain and provided sustenance for bigger mammals.

The scientist said a decline in the worm population could mean problems for those larger animals.

“Earthworms are a favourite food of many organisms such as foxes, badgers, moles and hedgehogs as they are a really good source of nutrients," he said.

Prof Hudson said worms could actually survive in water - but flooding presented another level of challenge.

The creatures breathe oxygen like humans, but they don’t have lungs and so breathe across their skin instead.

"The problem is during flooding, a lot of oxygen gets consumed in water by various bacterial processes and if the oxygen level drops, then the earthworm will drown.

“This research will help us understand how climate change and flooding is affecting the lives of earthworms, which is so important because earthworms are an integral part of how healthy our soils are,” Prof Hodson added.

He said that earthworms, whose tunnels promote drainage and aeration, could boost plant growth by up to 30% and may also be responsible for 6.5% of global grain production.

For the two-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the academic will be joined by ecologist Ben Pile, environmental physiologist Michael Berenbrink from the University of Liverpool and hydrologists Megan Klaar and Tom Willis from the University of Leeds.

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