Rediscovery of Darwin

This bachelor thesis focuses on Charles Darwin's The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits and its impact on contemporary science. Descriptive parts and sections about morphology have been frequently mentioned in the literature, however, most often as a historical curiosity. Major immediate impact and lasting interest was sparked by thoughts about the behavior of earthworms. Ideas about mixing of soil by worms instigated the publication of scholarly papers analyzing the distribution of earthworms and the importance of soil mixing for archaeology. Ideas related to the impact of mixing on soil formation and its fertility received much less attention. Hypotheses about the impact of bioturbation on landscape level were largely ignored, only to be rediscovered and further explored at the end of the last century and the beginning of the current one