Worm Burrows poster by Allison and Matthew.
Physical Description: Worms have long segmented bodies with no legs. They have no eyes, no nose and no ears. They sense light instead of seeing, they feel vibrations instead of hearing and they sense the presence of the dead leaves they decompose instead of smelling. After they feed on dead leaves, their waste, called "castings" which looks like mounds of small clumps of nutrient rich soil, is then mixed in with top soil.
Habitat: Worms live in burrows in the ground. They come up out of their burrows to find dead leaves which they pull into their burrows and feed on.
Niche: In addition to being important decomposers, worms also aerate the soil. Because of their burrowing activity, worms allow oxygen to enter the soil. This is very important because other animals and single celled organisms that live in the soil need oxygen to live. Worms burrowing activity also allows water to enter the soil. Plants roots and other burrowing animals need water to live.
Worm Burrows poster by Allison and Matthew.