Life in the Soil
Soil is that dark stuff beneath our feet. Or it is dirt. Or it is the digestive system of plants. The more knowledgeable we become about the soil the more amazing it becomes. We can understand cation and anion exchange, or how clay works to humidify a soil, or how to read a soil report and successfully amend our soil but that tells us nothing about the teeming multi-trillions of denizens that dwell in our gardens and fields.
James Nardi starts with the bacteria and fungi in the soil, the nitrogen fixers, the digesters of plant and mineral matter and the largest populations in the soil. In a square meter of soil one could find 1010 bacteria, 109 protozoa, 5 million nematodes, 100K mites, 50K springtails, 10K rotifiers and tardigrades, 5K insects, myriapods, spiders and diplurans, 100 slugs and snails and one, just one vertebrate—possibly the farmer or the dog.