Nature's Archive #39: Dr. Elaine Ingham - The Ecology of the Soil Food Web
One common theme of my podcasts is that everything in nature is interconnected in multiple ways. And today’s episode demonstrates that in some mind bending ways.
What’s the topic? Well, it’s an often overlooked subject. If it is handled well, it will sequester carbon, reduce the impacts of droughts, improve our water quality, and probably save you money. And if you need another hint, when it is healthy it also makes your food more nutritious. By now you probably guessed the topic - soil ecology and the soil food web.
My guest is Dr. Elaine Ingham. Dr. Ingham has over four decades of experience in soil biology, and is generally recognized as the foremost expert in the field. She is the primary author of the USDA Soil Biology Primer, and founder of Soil Food Web Inc, a group dedicated to empowering ordinary people to bring healthy soils back to life. Dr. Ingham has a B.A. in biology and chemistry from St. Olaf College, an M.S. in microbiology from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Colorado State University.
Our wide-ranging conversation only scratched the surface of soil ecology. As I said, everything is interconnected, so it makes conversations like these somewhat challenging since everything inter-relates.
So what did we cover? Well, we talked about the difference between dirt and soil, which is an ecosystem unto itself, consisting of varying amounts of fungi, bacteria, predators, and parasites such as protozoa and nematodes.
Dr. Elaine discusses the entire process of how fungi, bacteria, and other organisms convert soil nutrients to forms readily available to plants, and how plants actually induce this behavior through chemical signaling. She discusses how plants trade sugars for nutrients from fungi, and how these trades are constantly adjusting.
We dig deep into how to measure soil health, and surfaced from our microscopy deep dive to discuss shortcuts you can use to assess your own soil health and compost health without a microscope.
And we touched on many other topics, such as the impact of soil compaction, and the negative impacts of inorganic fertilizers.
Be sure to check out the show notes because some of the topics really require some visual aides. I’ve included a graphic provided by Dr. Elaine that summarizes the importance of soil health, as well as some videos showing Dr. Elaine’ technique for mixing your soil solution for the microscope, and a video of some spirilla bacteria - they’re pretty wild!
FULL SHOW NOTES
People and Organizations
Soil Food Web School - look for the resources and classes mentioned today
Soil Regen Summit 2022
Books and Other Things
Teaming with Microbes, The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis
USDA Soil Biology P
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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com
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Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!