Veni, Vidi, Vermi... II. EARTHWORMS IN ORGANIC FIELDS RESTORE SOM & H2O AND FIX CO2

Earthworm proliferations of 57–122% (mean +78.5%) under adjacent (i.e., same soil/climate) organic vs. conventional fields related to improved soil quality and higher yields of 16–80% (mean +39.1%) in winter wheat, tropical paddy rice and sugarcane. Soil moisture differences ranged -11–41% (mean +12.0%) while soil carbon in SOM humus ranged 26–128% (mean +64.9%). Correlation (r >0.835) of earthworms is with crop yield and both soil H2O & C storage hence atmospheric CO2 reduction via photosynthesis / humification. A 1,000 yr-old pasture at Haughley had highest earthworms (424 m-2), stored 222 t ha-1 carbon in its soil organic matter (SOM), plus moisture capacity was 90.9% above an adjacent arable field. Relating to global climate change, extrapolation to areas given over to each of the three crops if all organically converted gives CO2 equivalents (CO2e) of 49.2, 2.8 and 1.1 Gt (total 53.1 Gt) C storage for wheat, rice and sugarcane, respectively. Wheat alone, albeit projected, exceeds global emission (~40 Gt CO2); rice matches Eurozone’s (2.5 Gt); and sugarcane either Japan (1.2 Gt) or UK + Australia combined (0.5 + 0.4 Gt). Extra carbon stored (53.1 Gt CO2e) would equal ~7.3 ppm atmospheric CO2 reduction. Pasture management offers yet greater potential remedy, here calculated as optimal 222 t ha-1 x 3.6 Gha total grass = 800 Gt C (x 3.667 conversion factor = 2,934 Gt CO2e) about equal to present atmospheric values of 3,000 Gt CO2 and 400 ppm. Even at same human emission/consumption rates, humus solves carbon sequestration whilst also providing food

Veni, Vidi, Vermi... I. On the contribution of Darwin’s ‘humble earthworm’ to soil health, pollution-free primary production, organic ‘waste’ management & atmospheric carbon capture for a safe and sustainable global climate.

Organic farming supplies more food with less ecological cost than chemical agriculture. Earthworm aspects of organic farming are twofold: ‘waste’ recycling through compost worms and soil enhancement from endemic field worms. Bio-physico-chemical benefits from sustained earthworm activity accrue for biodiversity, soil organic matter (SOM = worm-worked humus) derived from carbon sequestration of atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis/humification and nitrogen N2 fixation from microbes rather than synthetic Haber-Bosch urea, plus greatly improved infiltration and soil-water-storage. Just as earthworm burrows filter all rainwater, all atmospheric carbon from leaf litter/roots is processed through their intestines in 12 yr cycles as they build topsoil. Earth’s total soil data are not readily available, but flat-surface estimates with ranges of 2,400-6,020 Gt of topsoil humus are newly recalculated herein as 10,800-27,090 Gt containing 6,264-15,712 Gt SOC with a median value >10,000 Gt global soil carbon. Carbon restoration in this humus resource alone has potential for rapid reduction of Mauna Loa’s 400 ppm atmospheric CO2 by ~100 ppm, i.e., to pre-industrial levels. This review highlights that organic husbandry – with earthworms at its core – offsets CO2 emissions (remediation) while moisture, pH, and soil temperatures simultaneously improve, increasing crop resilience and biodiversity (mitigation & adaptation). Earthworms naturally monitor & maintain healthy soils thereby solving human-generated climate & critical species extinction problems at both local & global scale. Such important considerations support 2015 Paris COP21 ‘Climate Change Policy’ agenda & international “4/1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security & Climate”

Hibernian reports of a new Franco-Iberian worm (Oligochaeta: Megadrilacea: Lumbricidae)

A continental European earthworm, Kenleenus armadas sp. nov., is newly described from an introduction to a farm in Dublin, Ireland. Previously recognized as Aquitainian Prosellodrilus amplisetosus Bouché, 1972, the morphology and molecular characteristics rather indicate it as a taxon new to science. Its description has required revision of all prosellodrilid genera including Algerian subgenus Maghrebiella Baha & Bera, 2001 that is a permanently invalid homonym, here replaced with Cadanera nom. nov. A revised checklist is appended that holds Allolobophora festae Rosa, 1892 as a species incertae sedis pending review of the Cadanera type. This report brings the total earthworms known from Britain & Ireland to 72 species, including a new record of cosmopolitan Pithemera bicincta (Perrier, 1875) (Megascolecidae) from Dublin’s Botanic Garden

Image Quality Assessment Using Spatial Frequency Component

Image quality assessment (IQA) is a crucial technique in perceptual image/video coding, because it is not only a ruler for performance evaluation of coding algorithms but also a metric for ratio-distortion optimization in coding. In this paper, inspired by the fact that distortions of both global and local information influence the perceptual image quality, we propose a novel IQA method that inspects these information in the spatial frequency components of the image. The distortion of the global information mostly existing in low spatial frequency is measured by a rectified mean absolute difference metric, and the distortion of the local information mostly existing in high spatial frequency is measured by SSIM. These two measurements are combined using a newly proposed abruptness weighting that describes the uniformity of the residual image. Experimental results on LIVE database show that the proposed metric outperforms the SSIM and achieves performance competitive with the state-of-the-art metrics. ? 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.EI

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2,3,4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Unravelling some Kinki earthworms (Annelida: Oligochaeta: Megadrili: Megascolecidae) - Part II

Metaphire tanbode sp. nov. is found in rice paddy in Kinki plain at Lake Biwa and Amynthas yamade sp. nov. isfrom Hira range to the West. M. tanbode belongs to the M. hilgendorfi / A. tokioensis species-complex, while montane A. yamadeis comparable to both Amynthas aeruginosus-group and Duplodicodrilus schmardae-group. Genetic barcoding (mtDNA COI) viatypes is attempted. Taxonomic ‘housekeeping’ requires replacement of invalid homonyms: e.g. Pheretima montana Ishizuka, 1999(non type-species P. montana Kinberg, 1867) is renamed Amynthas nonmontanus; others are A. nonsilvestris, A. noninvisus, A.nonmonticolus and A. nonsetosus, noms. et combs. novae. Thus Pheretima Kinberg, 1867 s. stricto remains unrecorded from Japanwhile prior Amynthas Kinberg, 1867, and its derivative Metaphire Sims & Easton, 1972, are abundant and diverse. Family andgeneric level definition and placement of Oriental pheretimoids are restated for the benefit of current workers and for novicefield-ecologists. Surveys of below-ground biodiversity of rice paddy in Lake Biwa is compared to more natural habitats aroundLake Pedder in Western Tasmanian Wilderness Area, and co-incidentally, both have 21 recorded earthworm species. Thus claimsfrom various countries of less than six species per location are contraindicated by thorough eco-taxonomic methods yieldingmore representative results

Review of Criodrilidae (Annelida: Oligochaeta) including Biwadrilus from Japan.

Palaearctic family Criodrilidae Vejdovsky, 1884 is briefly reviewed and revised to reabsorb Biwadrilidae Brinkhurst & Jamieson, 1971, monotypic for lacustrine/limnic Biwadrilus bathybates (Stephenson, 1917) based on examination of new Lake Biwa material from recent earthworm surveys. Comparison is with type species: Criodrilus lacuum Hoffmeister, 1845. Synonymy in Criodrilus of monotypic genus Hydrilus Qiu & Bouché, 1998 from Algeria is accepted but with provisional restoration of its type as Criodrilus ghaniae (Qiu & Bouché, 1998) comb. nov., if indeed it belongs in the Criodrilidae. Another recent taxon Guarani camaqua Rodríguez & Lima, 2007 from rice fields of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is syn. nov. of Criodrilus lacuum at species and genus level since its characteristics are easily embraced within interspecific variability. Moreover, the prior taxon, C. lacuum, was already known from its type-locality. Distribution, ecology and species associations of the criodrilids are briefly summarised including a report of C. lacuum maintained in a laboratory culture for >42 years (T. Timm pers. comm.). A key to species is provided

Biodiversity of Earthworms in Taiwan: a Species Checklist with the Confirmation and New Records of the Exotic Lumbricids Eisenia fetida and Eiseniella tetraedra

目前臺灣（包含?嶼）的大型蚯蚓大約有70 種，其中29 種（約40%）為非原生種，在這些種?中69%為亞洲分佈的巨蚓科蚯蚓，21%為全?區的正蚓科蚯蚓。在陳（2003）文中記??臺灣東?部的宜?縣蚯蚓，尚有27 種未命名種?，?將其發表，則臺灣會有超過100 種蚯蚓。這份臺灣蚯蚓名?同時也記?及鑑種確認?個外?種Eisenia fetida (Savigny)及Eiseniella tetraedra (Savigny)。Terrestrial megadrile earthworms variously reported from Taiwan including Lanyu Island (Botel Tobago) number approximately 70 species with 29 of these, or 40%, non-natives for which 69% are Asiatic Megascolecidae and 21% are Lumbricidae of Holarctic origin. An additional 27 unnamed species have been identified from Ilan county north-eastern Taiwan by Chen et al. (2003) that, if published, would bring the total to around 100 known species. The checklist is also provided with the confirmation and new records of the exotic lumbricids Eisenia fetida (Savigny) and Eiseniella tetraedra (Savigny)