First it was cows. Now it’s worms.

A little over two years ago in this space, we reported on a UN study that cited cattle farming as a major contributor to environmental destruction around the globe. Now the emissions of aquatic worms are coming under scrutiny. According to a report published in the March 2, 2009 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, worms and other aquatic animals that feed on lake and stream bottom sediments may be exacerbating climate change woes by burping out nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

JIM DESTEFANI, Editor Contact me

Most commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas said to be approximately 310 times as powerful as an equivalent weight of carbon dioxide. Scientists had already discovered that earthworms emitted the gas, but no one had looked for similar emissions from their aquatic counterparts. The researchers found that the presence of worms and other animals could increase nitrous oxide up to eight times more than those measured near lakes or streams where the animals were not present.

Although the scientists say the worms’ contribution to greenhouse gas evolution is relatively small, they speculate that biological emissions from the aquatic critters could increase as more nitrogen-rich fertilizer runs off into lakes, streams and seas.

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