Digging into soil and what it means to earth’s survival

Most people think of soil simply as something that grass, trees and other plants grow in and on. But nothing could be further from the truth, says Dr. Augusto Zanella. Below in quotes, some key concepts gathered during an IUFRO Spotlight interview. “Soils – in the forest and elsewhere – involve and affect ‘normal life’. They modify the air we breathe, they influence the climate, impact the food we eat and the water we drink”. “Soil is not a substrate or a source of nutrients. It is a living matrix that sustains the functioning of every ecosystem”. “It works like an efficient bank. It capitalizes energy and nutrients to be delivered for building and sustaining more complex and efficient ecosystems. It is a source of new materials, continuously generated from biodegradation and re-elaboration of dead structures”. “A comparison between natural and anthropic soil systems revealed the importance of the biological structure of soil for understanding and managing how the soil functions. Anthropic soil is that worked by humans in a way to produce new characteristics that make it different from the original natural soil”. “There is a connection between the soil and produced food qualities. There is a relationship between the type of agriculture and climate warming. There is a relationship between forestry, agriculture, soil and human development/health. And there is an interconnected soil in space, air, water and all living organisms.” Dr. Zanella, of the University of Padua, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, and Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Working Party 8.02.03 – Humus and soil biodiversity, is one of the proponents of Humusica, a concept that looks at soil and soil research from a somewhat different perspective and seeks to provide an international and consistent soil classification system. “It is a new concept of soil; more biological and connected to the process of natural evolution. It’s soil seen as the place of the endless recycling of structures that grow old and die. Life cannot exist without death. Soil is the conjunction that links the two.”