On the other hand, in the Americas it's an invasive species and many crops were doing fine before it's introduction so I'm not sure I'd call it critical for plants health. In the end we can compare yield in fields with roundup applied and those without and compare yields to find out the overall effect on plants.
But the dangers of it affecting other animals' nervous systems the same way it affects roundworms is a serious worry.
Hmm, I was assuming the OP was extending the c elegans result to earthworms since I've never heard of c elegans aerating soil. And now that I go google it I'm seeing lots of stuff on c elegans requiring aerated soil but none on it doing it itself so I think I'm correct in my assumption?
c. elegans help maintain the decomposition pipeline, not soil aeration.
There are a few things that if they were lost globally would greatly affect the necessary process of decomposition.
A lot of what's written about c. elegans environment has been overturned. It was thought to be a soil nematode, but it's really most common in rotting fruit.
Footnote: Roundworms and Earthworms are different animals.
The animals cited in this study are roundworms and belong to the Filum Nematoda, one of the most frequent animals in this planet and also one of the most overlooked.
Most of them are not parasite animals, but we know more about the parasites because they cause gross diseases in humans.
Earthworms are the common pink worms found on soil, they belong to Filum Annelida (and is true that some european earthworms invaded America a few thousands years ago).
Earthworms and humans are basically not directly linked in the trophic chain. We don't feed on them, and they don't feed on us directly or cause us diseases.
They replant with round-up ready pine, so they spray to kill aspen which is a firebreak species, and grow massive pine stands which are the opposite. It's the major reason for the massive forest fires we've had lately (and thus the massive flooding).
>The half-life of glyphosate in soil ranges between 2 and 197 days; a typical field half-life of 47 days has been suggested. Soil and climate conditions affect glyphosate's persistence in soil. The median half-life of glyphosate in water varies from a few to 91 days.[57] At a site in Texas, half-life was as little as three days. A site in Iowa had a half-life of 141.9 days
If it show up in your urine, it mean it lasted too long.
It is also a powerful chelating agent (make you lose minerals) is another concern for humans.
"Although the chelating properties are well known, this potential additional environmental risk was never adequately considered in the regulatory risk assessment (EFSA 2015a, 2015b)."
Do you have a source for that? I thought the half-life in soil was 90 days. Certainly would be perplexing as to how various Roundup products work for months to a year.
