Soil fauna is significant in mediating decomposition processes and nutrient cycling.
Earthworms are especially important in temperate and tropical regions, because they provide multiple ecosystem services. I will briefly talk about the main functional groups of earthworms, and the role they play in soil processes. I will then discuss field techniques to assess earthworm communities. After presenting some of our data from the Greater Baltimore Metropolitan Area and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, we will go out and try to sample some worms. Many of these compounds are environmentally persistent, globally distributed, and readily bioaccumulate in tissues of vertebrates.