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Position : Former Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of Waikato.

Field : Optics, optoelectronics.

With a desire to see the world, Rainer and his partner Anna took up a contract to work in Australia analysing and improving laser systems. After the initial culture shock, both started to love the southern hemisphere and decided to stay.

Rainer then took up a position with a company involved in developing and manufacturing electronic measuring equipment for agricultural applications. During this period, Rainer

The Formation of Vegetable Mould,

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It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organised creatures.

Charles Darwin

• Recycling organic material: organicRecycling organic material: Earthworms, along with bacteria and fungi, decompose organic material. Most people know about earthworms and compost, but earthworms do the same in pasture soils, decomposing dung and plant litter and processing 2–20 tonnes of organic matter per hectare each year, and recycling leaf litter under orchards and in other forested areas.

• Increasing nutrient availability: nutrientIncreasing nutrient availability: This happens in two ways: by incorporating organic materials into the soil and by unlocking the nutrients held within dead organisms and plant matter. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen become more readily available to plants after digestion by earthworms and being excreted in earthworm casts. Scientists have measured up to five fold increases in nitrogen availability in earthworm casts compared to undigested soil. Earthworms also take nutrients down through the soil profile, bringing them into closer contact with plant roots.

• Improving soil structure: soil structureImproving soil structure: Earthworm burrows alter the physical structure of the soil. They open up small spaces, known as pores, within the soil. When earthworms are introduced to soils devoid of them, their burrowing can lead to increases in water infiltration rates of up to 10 times the original amount. This brings water and soluble nutrients down to plant roots. Burrowing also improves soil aeration (important for both plants and other organisms living in the soil) and enhances plant root penetration.

• Providing food for predators: Earthworms, like all creatures, are part of food webs. Birds are well known predators, but native earthworms are also food for endangered and endemic land snails.