Back Garden Biology Oxford University

The species with the biggest biomass in any garden is almost certainly the earthworm. These humble denizens of our soil provide essential services by turning over soil and promoting plant growth. Professor Peter Holland explains why Darwin found them so fascinating and Lindsay explains how their muscles work, allowing them to escape from birds, no matter how early they turn up.

We take a walk around a local park to admire more winter trees and see why conifers win over broadleaved trees as we move further North, but even they have to drop their needles during the winter in the farthest reaches of the Boreal forest. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

In winter the bones of the trees are laid bare, giving us a chance to see their skeletons. Join Lindsay as she takes a tour round Wytham Woods in Oxford, showing you how to identify our common native trees from their bark and the shape of their branches. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Peering into a drop of pondwater allows you to look back in time and see key events in the history of life on Earth. In this episode we learn where plants obtained the machinery needed for photosynthesis and find out how hard it is for multicellular beings to form. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

What do birds like eating and what decisions do they have to make when visiting a bird feeder? Not quite tuppence a bag - Brits spent around 200 million pounds a year on bird food. But what do birds like eating and what decisions do they have to make when visiting a feeder? Lindsay visits her mum's garden to get some close-up shots, Friederike Hillemann tells us about her research in Wytham Woods and Annette Fayet explains how puffins face similar problems. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Find out how plants like mistletoe and hayrattle extract resources from their hosts and how hayrattle engages in a game of rock, paper, scissors, that makes managing meadows a whole lot easier. Around half of the species on our planet are parasites. Plants can play this game, being either partially or fully parasitic on their hosts. Find out how plants like mistletoe and hayrattle extract resources from their hosts and how hayrattle engages in a game of rock, paper, scissors, that makes managing meadows a whole lot easier. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/