Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
We speak of having roots, which we take as being where we come from and the
characters we inherit from our parents and grandparents. Place is clearly important
for establishing roots. Indeed, when we buy a family home, we talk about “putting
down our roots.” As in soil, our roots help to stabilize and ground us within an
increasingly reckless society. Ideally, our roots grow through our three levels of self,
from the conscious self down to the deep Self. Such growth brings stability and is
stimulated by thinking at deeper levels and improving awareness of ourselves and
our surroundings.
Soil properties can have remarkably similar functions to those in society. We are
all well aware that a decline in soil structural quality leads to a loss of porosity that
decreases the ability of the soil to grow crops and to provide ecosystem services.
Thinking of parallels with human existence, soil with good porosity and a wide
range of pore sizes all joined up is like a person who is both broad minded and open
minded, who reaches out to understand where others are coming from, and who fos-
ters life and creativity. Within this structure, I consider organic matter to resemble
our own energy and vitality—if they work in a healthy body, then we can be resil-
ient to all kinds of stresses. Extending this further, just as organic matter is the rich
glue that holds soils together, perhaps there is an invisible “glue” that holds people
together in families and communities such as the shared activities of work, eating
and drinking, rituals, and religion. If this glue weakens by diminishing any one of
these activities, such as drinking at home rather than in the pub or the decline in
clubs or community meetings like annual fairs, then our links to each other weaken.
The microbes work in the soil pores. Many of the small pores, less than about
0.1 mm, are wedge shaped rather than being spherical. Wedges of moisture are
trapped in these pores during drying (Figure 11.1), and these form the microbial
habitats. The wedges are mostly separated from each other so that the different types
of microbes are isolated, with the result that many different types develop and exist
together. This helps the soil to have high microbial biodiversity. This illustrates how
Water film
Pendular
water
FIGURE 11.1
Soil pore spaces formed by aggregation of particles are typically angular and
not cylindrical, allowing dual occupancy of water and air aquatic habitats in “corners” behind
air-water interfaces and, thus, biodiversity. (Courtesy of Dr. Dani Or, Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology, Zurich.)
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