Soil Biodiversity
The Biodiversity of Soil
Without soil, no life on land could exist. Even with this profound scientific truth, it is difficult for us to see the ground beneath our feet as the source of our life, however even the word “human” relates to “humus”. Climate change is demanding we address our soil blindness now. A deeper dive into the soil beneath the surface invites us into this enormously biodiverse and complex ecosystem, where we can learn how to protect and regenerate soils, essential to planetary life and climate regulation.
Getting inside soil is akin to traveling to a new landscape, a new world revealing beautiful and morphologically diverse architecture, space, water, and life forms. Here we find that soil is more than dirt and nutrients; it is a biodiverse system in its own right. Bacteria, filamentous fungi (mycorrhizae), micro-organisms, collembola, nematodes, mites, protists, worms, and thousands more operate in an intricate trophic system, called a “brown food web”. In addition to providing nutrients to land-based life, the brown food web stores two thirds of the world’s carbon. This should be a game-changing bit of information to climate research. Disturbance to soil speeds up the decay of soil matter, releasing carbon and increasing temperatures above.
Respecting this brown food web helps us comprehend the direct correlation between soil life, global temperatures, and climate change. As designers, we must bring soil regeneration to the forefront of our projects. Knowledge of the biodiversity, hydrology, and architecture of soils as a system invites us to shift how we work with soil. Mitigating soil disturbance, treating soil as a living system, and restoring soil biology will not only improve landscape performance, but help keep carbon underground. Assemblage sees great potential in the growing awareness of soil's role in planetary biodiversity and carbon capture.
Additional resources:
The Life In The Soil podcast from the soil lab at Freie Universität Berlin is a great resource for learning more about soil ecology.
To get a feel for the life below, check out https://www.chaosofdelight.org/
3D animation by Zach Murgio