The Real Dirt on Restoration:
Soils are more than minerals, air, waterand
by Mike Amaranthus Ph.D. and Efren
Cazares Ph.D
THROUGHOUT the world, in widely
varying ecosystems, removal of indigenous
vegetation, topsoil removal, and severe soil
disturbance such as mining, high intensity
fire, and urbanization, has led to
deterioration of the soil to support life.
While this soil may still support some
Well aggregated, uncompacted soils are promoted by organic glues excreted by
mycorrhizal fungi.
limited vegetation, the soil has been
degraded by the loss of the native plant
community and its invisible, underground
components.
Without the underground components the
soil looses its ability to acquire mineral
nutrients vital to plant growth, to absorb and
hold water, to fend off disease, and to remain
adhesive without being compacted.
Which soil organisms are important to site
recovery following disturbance? How do
disturbance activities affect these
populations? What are the rates of recovery?
Can these beneficial organisms be
"reinoculated" to improve restoration
success?
Answers to these important questions are
coming more rapidly with increased research
activity. Our growing knowledge of the
workings of this complex below ground
system has already enabled us to better
predict the consequences of our actions and
to
decaying organic matter.
in the development of a soil that supports the
reestablishment of favorable plant and
hydraulic site conditions.
The "real dirt" on soil
How is it that undisturbed habitats thrive for
millennia in their native condition? How do
native grasslands and forests produce an
abundance of plants and animals in the
complete absence of irrigation, fertilizer
repair them! We are beginning to appreciate
the role of soil organisms and tillage? The
answer lies in understanding certain
principles by which native soils function.
We have been taught that soils are comprised
of four basic components: minerals, air,
water and decaying organic matter. What we
haven't been told is that there is another
major component of soil. It is the living soil,
and the web of life, that supports plant health
and growth. The life forms residing and
interacting in healthy soil, what we call "real
dirt", range from the smallest, most
primitive, living organisms, all the way up
the evolutionary ladder to mammals.
Estimates of the types and numbers of these
organisms, which vary in function and are
strongly interdependent, are staggering. For
example, in a single thimble full of healthy
soil, 10-100 million bacteria and
actinomycetes, 1-100 thousand fungal
propagules, and
several kilometers of fungal hyphae can be
present. On the larger scale, a single square
yard of surface soil can contain 1-100 thousand
nematodes, and larger organisms such as
worms, insects, and soil animals typically range
from 10 to well over 100. The resulting
biomass reflected in these numbers is immense.
For example, a healthy forest soil can contain
3700 lb/acre dry weight of fungal filaments
alone! The living soil, the "real dirt", should be
viewed as a living community and not as an
inert body.
What do beneficial soil organisms do in natural
areas that can also benefit the restoration site?
Native prairies and forests function for decades
and centuries without artificial inputs. The soils
are tilled by soil organisms, not by machinery.
They are fertilized too, microscopic bacteria fix
nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it to
a form readily available to plants. In the native
system, fertility is used over and over again and
nutrients are seldom lost to runoff, ground
water or erosion. Jim Trappe, Ph.D professor at
Oregon State University has studied the living
soil for 45 years and published over 250
scientific papers on the subject. Says Dr.
Trappe, "Beneficial soil organisms such as
mycorrhizal fungi conserve, process and
transport bound up
Root system of Abies magnifica
treated with mycorrhizal inoculant
(left) and without mycorrhizal
inoculant (right) 1 year after
outplanting.