Earthworm Sampling Day

Join like-minded people interested in recording wildlife observations for a day surveying earthworms. The specimens collected will help us to build up a library of images for the Earthworm Image Recognition Project and generate an earthworm species list for the site. All records will be added to the National Earthworm Recording Scheme database. Sampling earthworms involves conducting microhabitat searches and hand-sorting soil pit samples to collect specimens for identification by our trained earthworm recorders at a later date.

Participants will also be asked to take photographs of the earthworms that they collect and submit these to the Earthworm Image Recognition Project - an exciting collaboration with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology to create and test an app that will attempt to identify earthworms using AI.

What will the day involve?

• Practical experience using a variety of methods to survey and sample earthworms.
• Practical experience in collecting and preserving earthworm specimens.
• Contributing to an innovative project involving smartphone photography and AI
• A chance to meet fellow like-minded people from a range of different disciplines.

Earthworm Specialist: Keiron Derek Brown

Keiron has been running the National Earthworm Recording Scheme since it was launched in 2014. He has run over 100 earthworm training courses and events since 20214, covering a wide range of subjects including biology, ecology, surveying, identification and recording. He is currently authoring a Provisional Earthworm Conservation Status Assessment for the UK on behalf of Natural England.

Recording the UK's earthworms

All records generated through this event will be submitted to iRecord in order to share our findings with the site managers, the Local Environmental Record Centre and the National Earthworm Recording Scheme.

The photos generated will be shared with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and used to train an image recognition AI to assist farmers with earthworm identification.

Swaledale

This event will take place in at Low Oxque Farm near Marrick (DL11 7LJ)

We'll be outside for the whole day so please bring suitable clothing for all types of weather and please bring your lunch and any snacks you will require with you on the day.

This event is delivered by the Biological Recording Company and supported by the Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected project, the Earthworm Society of Britain and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology as part of the Earthworm Image Recognition project.

Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected is led by the North Pennines National Landsdcape Partnership and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.