A research on free-living soil nematodes co-authored by Vietnamese scientist Nguyen Thi Anh Duong was recently published in Nature – the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal.

Dương (third, left) in a discussion with her foreign fellows at an international seminar on sustainable development in Bonn, Germany, 2018. — Photo Courtesy of Nguyen Thi Anh Duong

According to the study, there are 57 billion nematodes for every single living human being – much greater than previous estimation. The total biomass of them is about 300 million tons, equal to around 80 per cent of the combined weight of the human population on Earth.

Nematodes play a significant role in recycling carbons, nutrients and minerals in the soil. The abundance of nematodes is strongly correlated with soil carbon: where there are more worms, there is more carbon.

With the new findings, Duong and her team hopes that it will contribute to future climate change prediction.

“Soil nematodes can be a tool for testing ecological hypotheses and understanding biological mechanisms in soil because of their central role in the soil food web and linkage to ecological processes,” the Vietnamese scientist points out.

She also hopes that the results of the research will help in the fight against climate change, for instance, helping land managers make the right decisions in the fight against biopersity loss and address climate change at a global level by identifying soil types that need to be recovered.

With the new research on nematodes, Duong has become the first female scientist at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to have a study published in the Nature.

For over the last 10 years, the scientist at the Vietnam Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, has been working unwaveringly to build a database of soil nematodes in Vietnam.

She is the author and co-author of nearly 30 prestigious international articles, announcing 15 new species for science.

Duong was also winner of the 2017 Golden Globe Award for young people with outstanding achievements in scientific research awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology.