BICB Colloquium: Kyungsoo Yoo

Kyungsoo Yoo is presenting as part of the nomination process for new BICB faculty. He is a Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota

Title

Abstract

All earthworms in Minnesota are invasive. Much of the Northern Hemisphere was under ice sheets or cold periglacial environments that wiped out native earthworms. As the climate warmed in the early Holocene epoch, the glaciers melted, and the newly exposed lands evolved into the temperate, boreal, and arctic ecosystems that we see today.  The natural dispersal rates of earthworms are slow. As a result, these vast ecosystems have evolved without earthworms for the past ~10,000 years. However, this status quo has been rapidly altered by the human-mediated introduction of European earthworms over the past decades and centuries and, more recently, Asian earthworms. I will present my research group's efforts to characterize the dramatic ecological and biogeochemical impacts that these invasive earthworms have had on formerly glaciated ecosystems. I want to highlight the earthworm invasion as a serious global change issue. At the same time, I will invite biologists and data scientists to consider the potential collaborative opportunities that invasive earthworms and soils present.