Creatures in the soil

Excerpt

Life in the Soil, a new book by James B. Nardi, a biologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, may serve as an interesting guidebook for those planning to attend the Smithsonian Institution's “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” exhibit opening at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC in July 2008 and subsequently traveling to 10 venues across the country.

Minerals from the soil nourish all creatures during their lives; and unto minerals of the soil all creatures ultimately return at their deaths. A soil is not fertile and complete until creatures occupy it and contribute their organic portion to the mineral portion of the soil. Soils represent a marriage of the mineral and the organic world.

So begins Nardi's volume. Life in the Soil goes on to describe in more detail how soil forms and the importance of the interactions of plants, animals, and minerals in the soil.

This focus on life in the soil connects conservation of soil and biodiversity, and fits well with Aldo Leopold's view that land “is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals.”

A detailed catalog of bacteria, algae, fungi, protozoa, other microbes, insects, …