artsprosjektet_53-12_enchytraeidae

Study Extent

Samples from all Norwegian counties

Sampling

Each site/sample was about one litre of soil or (aquatic) sediment, and the sampling sites were subjectively selected to optimize diversity of habitat and taxa, on a local as well as a national scale. Enchytraeids may occur in up to hundreds in one such sample, and they need to be extracted and sorted from the substrate. For soil samples, extraction was done in a lab using the "wet funnel" method, where a hot light-source above a water-filled funnel (containing the soil sample on a fine mesh screen) forces the worms to move out from soil and down into the water column, where they sink into a small collecting bottle, connected underneath the funnel. Normally, a single soil sample yields specimens of 3-10 different species. Shortly after extraction, worms were normally sorted live under a dissecting scope and individually killed/preserved in 80% ethanol. Sandy sediments from sea shores, shallow marine bottoms, and river or lake sediments were generally sieved in the field, by repeated washing and decantation. For such sieved aquatic sediment samples, the material collected on the sieve was normally "killed off" as a bulk in 80% ethanol, and stored in a jar, for sorting in the lab on another day. A DNA sample (worm tissue), to be used for DNA barcoding, was taken from each individual selected for study; this sample was typically a short body part cut off from the worm's hind end. The rest of the worm was saved for preparation on a microscope slide.

Method steps

1. -

Norway