Are There More Creatures Above Ground Than Below?

Archive for the ‘soil’ Category

Are There More Creatures Above Ground Than Below?

In Northern Illinois, there is an abundance of beautiful native plants: purple coneflower, butterfly weed, black-eyed Susan, switch grass, maple trees and oak trees, just to name a few. The word “biodiversity” implies not just a multitude of plants, but includes all types of living things, like birds, mammals, amphibians, and insects. Because we can see all these things above ground enjoying the sun, air, and rain, it is hard to imagine that the underground world could be as rich and diverse.

However, within the soil there are hundreds of burrowing earthworms, thousands of miles of fungi, millions of insects and billions of bacteria, and other microorganisms busy at work under our feet. Soil-dwelling organisms make up a great deal of biological diversity across the planet, yet these invisible creatures are often overlooked. Many of us often forget the wild world underground. The number of species in the soil and their important ecological functions are so rich that ecologists have called soil the “poor man’s tropical rainforest.”
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Are Earthworms Native to Chicago?

Spring is upon us. With the snow off the ground (for now at least), and little new growth to obscure our view of the soil, it is easy to see the early stirrings of earthworm activity. Earthworm castings, neat piles of worm poop deposited on the surface as the worms busy themselves with their soil-work, are already accumulating on the lawns and parkways. Although nothing seems as natural or as necessary as this silent toiling, earthworms are, in fact, not native to the Chicago area.

As crazy as it may sound, nearly every earthworm you’ve seen in Chicago is an import! Native or not, their presence in gardens is often welcome as they increase soil fertility, making for bigger plants. However, in natural areas, where plant and animal communities have developed over thousands of years on worm-less soils, earthworm presence can be disruptive to these communities. Worms may be excellent companions in our vegetable plots, but are not so welcome in our natural areas.
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Myth: The Earth Under Our Feet in Chicago Is All Landfill

Soils in urban areas are poorly understood. Indeed, until most recently, federal and state efforts devoted to the inventory and classification of soil have been focused on agricultural, rangeland, and forest regions. As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, more attention must be paid to studying urban soil, particularly with respect to urban agriculture and food production.

Urban soils often show evidence of disturbance including cutting, filling and grading to level landscapes for development projects, and filling of areas with construction debris. Despite such disturbances, urban soils, just like their natural counterparts, provide valuable ecosystem services including serving as a medium for plant growth, regulator of water supply, habitat for organisms, modifier of the atmosphere, and recycler of raw materials.

The soil in the vacant lot down the street from your home might be highly disturbed and mixed with fill material. Yet it still sprouts vegetation, even if it is weeds! And with careful management, even these disturbed soils can be made productive for urban dwellers.

So, what is under our feet in Chicago? Is it soil or “landfill”? Unless you are walking on beach sand along the Lake Michigan shoreline, or a paved sidewalk or street, you are most likely walking on soil, both natural and disturbed!

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Myth: Mulching Your Garden Is Good for the Environment

Mulch Ado About Weed Control

Anyone who listens to the news is going to be uncomfortable using chemical weed killer to control weeds in a home garden. Although many are touted as safe, herbicides do seem to have a way of getting linked to unexpected health hazards.

The obvious, safer solution is to use mulch instead. Mulches not only control weeds, they help the soil retain moisture. Some mulches actually feed the soil as they decompose.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, it turns out that there’s a bit more to it. Some mulching options produce unwanted side effects, and it’s useful to know what they are.

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Myth: Road and Sidewalk Salt Is Natural and Just Disappears

The Assault of Salt

Most of the de-icers we use on roads and sidewalks are simply salt—common, everyday table salt. Sounds innocent enough, right? But when salt mixes with snow and melts into the soil, the salt begins its dirty work underground, preventing water and nutrient absorption by garden plants.

Above ground, the results are brown lawns with bare spots, spring bulbs that are undernourished and may not flower, crabgrass, tired-looking rose bushes, scorched maple leaves, and pine trees with brown needle tips. Salt products also damage waterways when they wash away in the spring.

The dirt on salt? It’s out of sight, but not out of our soil—and it can damage the plants which grow in that soil!

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Myth: Dirt Is Dead

With snow piled inches deep, the trees ragged and leafless, and scurrying animals forlornly looking for morsels, it is unsurprising that our thoughts turn to spring and its promise of rebirth. Apply a spade or even the heel of your boot to the dirt and confirm that of all the dead wintry things in the world, the soil seems to be the deadest of them all.

In fact, many share the common misconception that dirt is always dead (and not just in winter!). People often think that while soil may contain life to be sure, the soil itself, that matrix that supports roots and provides nutrients for plants, is an inert or dead substance.

On the contrary, however, living things are essential to the proper working of the soil and in the absence of living things soil would not be soil at all.

Living things are such an important part of the soil that in our part of the world, the so-called temperate ecological zone, the greatest species diversity occurs in the upper centimeters of the soil. In fact, because they are so rich in species soil ecologist PS Giller has named temperate soils the “poor man’s tropical rain forest.”

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EcoMyths

Archive for the ‘soil’ Category