Dr Kevin Butt

Long-term research has importance in soil ecology: One of Kevin’s experiments, in collaboration with English Heritage, has been running since 2007 and is investigating the way that earthworms are known to bury materials from the soil surface. Established at Down House in Kent, the home of Charles Darwin, and monitored on a 5-yearly basis, results of flint burial support Darwin’s observations on earthworm behaviour from 150 years ago. Since 1995, Kevin has undertaken investigations with Scottish Natural Heritage on the Isle of Rum. Historical, anthropogenic activities, such as crofting and forestry have been identified as important factors influencing distribution and diversity of earthworms alongside natural activities, such as of shearwaters, which fertilise upland soils close to their nesting burrows with their marine-derived faeces. Twenty years of monitoring translocated grassland, following construction of a major runway at an airport in NW England, has allowed Kevin to track development of earthworm communities. Viewed as a source of food for protected vertebrates, these earthworm populations survive despite predation, limited habitat management and climate change.

Research Group Memberships

Earthworm Research Group