Enumerating soil biodiversity

"we show that soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth"

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2304663120

#biodiversity #fungi #topsoil

Also

https://rabble.ca/environment/life-filled-and-life-giving-soil-is-too-precious-to-waste/

Topsoil loss is a major threat to food security and the environment in the Midwest, where conventional farming practices erode the fertile layer of soil. A new study shows that adopting no-till farming, which avoids ploughing and disturbing the soil, could stop topsoil loss and even restore it over time. The study estimates that no-till farming could save up to 3.5 billion tons of topsoil per year in the region.

#Topsoil #NoTill #Farming https://www.eurasiareview.com/31052023-no-till-revolution-could-stop-midwest-topsoil-loss-in-its-tracks/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=HariTulsidas%2Fmagazine%2FArchetypes

US #topsoil moisture rated very short/short jumped 10% to 36% nationwide this week, the biggest increase since June 2022, per the USDA's Brad Rippey. Soil moisture is dropping rapidly in the mid-South, Midwest and Northeast.
#drought

Soil matters. #soil #soilhealth #topsoil #foodsecurity
https://twitter.com/UNBiodiversity/status/1623954929462431746?t=Ml9fjxzy2Yc-p17gifWM3w&s=09

Last month I got to visit #Tropicalfruitworld in my goal to #explore my home a bit more.

I have realised that my vocabulary is extraordinarily smaller for fruit than what actually exists. 500 species were on that #farm it was insane.

But I learnt a few really cool thing they were doing in regards to #sustainability and helping the #topsoil and #earth which I thought would be fun to share:

🌿 They drop trimmed branches and twigs straight onto the ground to act as mulch and recycle nutrients back into the soil. They're focusing on #healthy not aesthetic
🌿 Some trees are specifically planted and "sacrificed" to #bats and #birds so as to keep them off the others. My husband was the one who used the word sacrifice instead of prevention, he kept snickering about it. All I can picture is an aztec-esque ritual with a Papaya on the stone.
🌿 They let out the #donkeys, #sheep, #goats to graze under the #trees. Acting as mowers and fertilizers. They may also release the #kangaroos but not sure. Did see the cutest Joey!! Flicking his little head around while laying with mum.
🌿 Keep #bees which help with #pollination. There were #sugarbagbees and European #honeybees

It was just alot of fun on the tour outside of the learning. One of the best things I saw were these pretty things. Australian almonds which were all shades of blue and purple. When cracked open they look like #coconut .

Completely recommend if ever in the area

For millions of years, beavers have covered the northern hemisphere, building dams, slowing water, trapping topsoil, creating vast fertile wetlands, replenishing aquifers, reducing floods, providing fire breaks, increasing evaporation, literally teraforming, and changing the climate. While industrial agriculture squanders topsoil, beavers support a sustainable ecosystem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBmKwQ9SPt0&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEug8_VK8ve0oDSJLoIU4b93&index=3

#beavers #wetlands #topsoil #videos #farming

My first toot of this video.

The decline of the #EarthWorms population is global.

This is a tragedy because they are our best ally to help decompose the organic matter.

They provide the most powerful #fertilizer that we know of. They help us reduce the volume of trash. They help shape our #landscape, feed our livestock...

I talk on this profile about how to farm them on a small scale.

#compost #soil #topsoil #regenerativefarming #permaculture #gardening

@compost

The decline of the #EarthWorms population is global.

This is a tragedy because they are our best ally to help decompose the organic matter.

They provide the most powerful #fertilizer that we know of. They help us reduce the volume of trash. They help shape our #landscape, feed our livestock...

I talk on this profile about how to farm them on a small scale.

#compost #soil #topsoil #regenerativefarming #permaculture #gardening #vermiculture #wormcasting #GrowYourOwn

@compost

There is no #climate crisis. There is a human #population crisis, a natural resources #consumption crisis, a natural #habitatloss crisis, a #pollution crisis, a #water crisis, a #topsoil crisis, a #deforestation crisis, a #growth crisis.

“If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

The amount of topsoil moisture rated short to very short is highest in Nebraska and South Dakota at 89% and 88%. The value for the contiguous US is 50%, which is considerably higher than the previous 7 years. This is the last USDA issuance of moisture values for 2022.
#drought #Nebraska #SouthDakota #topsoil #moisture #USDA

#introduction Hi! I work in platform strategy for a game platform. I like #WardleyMaps :)

Yes, I talk #product, #strategy, policy, tech/society and so forth. But looking curiously at denial we're in about the changes we need, individually and collectively, to stave off ecological disaster and the collapse of advanced human society. Not just #climate, but #biodiversity, #topsoil, #water, #transition, #permaculture, #pluriverse, #designjustice, #localism.

FAO warns 90 per cent of Earth’s topsoil at risk by 2050

It takes around a thousand years to create just a few centimetres of #topsoil and to help land restoration. Now, the UN agency is calling for more action by countries and partners who’ve signed up to the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) over the last decade. 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123462