Life in the Soil

Soil is full of amazing life with its own intrinsic value. Just like many other species, we humans benefit from it: Healthy soil not only provides food, feed, fiber and fuel, it also contributes to the stability of the whole Earth system. But living soils are at risk all around the world. So, in this episode, podcaster Anja Krieger and soil ecologist Matthias Rillig take a look into the sustainable future: How can we, as individuals and societies, nurture and restore the ecosystems of the soil? Get ready for the final episode of this series.

Subscribe and learn more on https://rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2021/04/01/life-in-the-soil-podcast-6-sustainability/

Correction (April 6, 2021): Bala Chaudhary is an Assistant Professor at DePaul University, not the University of Chicago.

CREDITS + LINKS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab https://rilliglab.org

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA www.biodiversa.org/

Guest experts in this episode: Katie Field, Marcel van der Heijden, Bala Chaudhary, Maddy Thakur, Yong-Guan Zhu and Richard Bardgett

Cameo voice: Kevin Caners, host of http://www.elephantpodcast.org

Story consultants: Eva Leifheit, Stefan Hempel

Thanks to: Stefanie Maaß

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de/

Theme song: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies www.futureecologies.net

Music: Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue

Sounds in intro from Saša Spačal's “Transversal Is A Loop” https://www.agapea.si/en/projects/transversal-is-a-loop

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

The list of how humans are causing trouble in the soil is pretty mind-blowing, kind of overwhelming. It’s connected to all that is central to our modern human societies - industrial agriculture, synthetic chemistry, city sprawl, global mobility and so on and on. In this episode, Matthias Rillig, Anja Krieger and their guests Maddy Thakur and Asmeret Asefaw Berhe explore the human impacts on soil and their cascading effects.

Subscribe and learn more on rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2021/03/05/life-in-the-soil-podcast-5-global-change/

CREDITS + LINKS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab https://rilliglab.org

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA www.biodiversa.org/

Guest experts in this episode: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Maddy Thakur

Additional Voices in intro: Diana Wall, Richard Bardgett

Story consultants: Stefan Hempel, Gaowen Yang, Milos Bielcik

Thanks to Joscha Grunewald for helping us improve the sound https://www.joschagrunewald.com/

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de

Theme song: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies www.futureecologies.net

Music: Julius Stucke / Klangpflaster https://klangpflaster.de/

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

If you dig out a handful of soil, or a whole bucket full, what do you see? Really, not that much? Well, yes, that’s one reason the study of soil is such a challenge. It’s a lot of stuff mushed together, crumbs, roots, dead stuff, critters. Soil is a very complex, intensely 3D-structured environment. How do you map that landscape? In order to look at the fine structures of a root, scientists have to painstakingly lay them bare. If they want to catch a critter, they have to lure it into a trap. And with very tiny organisms, it’s sometimes just impossible to get that sample. In this episode, scientists share their challenges and methods, and dream of new technologies to improve our understanding of soil in major ways - if it just existed! This episode features Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Kate Scow, Maddy Thakur, Marcel van der Heijden, and podcast producers Matthias Rillig and Anja Krieger.

Subscribe and learn more on rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2021/02/19/life-in-the-soil-podcast-4-methods/

CREDITS + LINKS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab rilliglab.org/

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA www.biodiversa.org/

Guest experts in this episode: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Kate Scow, Maddy Thakur, Marcel van der Heijden

Additional Voices in intro: Yong-Guan Zhu, Bala Chaudhary, Katie Field, Toby Kiers

Story consultants: Tessa Camenzind, Milos Bielcik, Moisés Sosa Hernández, Stefanie Maaß.

Thanks for feedback: Madara Pētersone

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen marenvonstockhausen.de/

Theme song: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies www.futureecologies.net

Music: Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/

Listeners in Switzerland can join the citizen science project by registering before April 15, 2021: https://www.beweisstueck-unterhose.ch/

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

In this episode, Anja and Matthias take you on an underground safari through the hidden jungle of the soil. And they’ve won some excellent scientists as tour guides. You’ll hear from Diana Wall about a tiny worm that is so tough it even lives in Antarctica or hot deserts. Richard Bardgett introduces you to collembola, also known as springtails - tiny insect-like animals that can jump like crazy! Stefan Scheu and Maddy Thakur reveal which animals are considered the “wolves of the soil”, and Kate Scow delves into bacterial communities. How do all these organisms work together as a system, and why does this soil food web matter greatly to us as well?

Subscribe and learn more on rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2021/01/15/life-in-the-soil-podcast-3-soil-food-web/

CREDITS + LINKS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab https://rilliglab.org/

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA www.biodiversa.org/

Guest experts in this episode: Diana Wall, Richard Bardgett, Stefan Scheu, Maddy Thakur, Kate Scow

Additional Voices in intro: Yong-Guan Zhu

Story consultants: Stefanie Maaß, Moisés Sosa Hernández

Thanks for feedback: Madara Pētersone, Florian Hintz

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de/

Theme music: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies www.futureecologies.net

Additional Music: Blue Dot Sessions https://www.sessions.blue/

Sounds: Sasa Spacal, “Transversal Is A Loop” https://www.agapea.si, leaves by iamdylanavery

Diana Wall and Richard Bardgett are founding members of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative: https://www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org

They were among the 300 scientists who contributed to the United Nations report on the global state of soil biodiversity which emerged from the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/CB1928EN

Together with the European Commission the GSBI has also published a beautiful Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas, which you can order in print or download for free:

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/c54ece8e-1e4d-11e6-ba9a-01aa75ed71a1

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, plants started to colonize the land. But amazingly, they did this without roots. So how on Earth did these early plants feed themselves? It looks like they found some helpful friends: A group of fungi provided them with nutrients from the ground, fossils suggest. Today, the vast majority of plants team up with these so-called mycorrhizal fungi, which live in their roots. In return for nutrients, the plant provides the fungi with carbon in the form of sugar and fats. It’s an age-old symbiosis, and one that continues to fascinate soil scientists. How does the plant-fungi relationship work? Is it love or just a deal? In this episode, Anja learns more from Katie Field, Toby Kiers, Bala Chaudhary and podcast co-producer Matthias Rillig, and explores the world of fungi: How do they travel the world, and what would the world look like from a fungal perspective?

Subscribe and learn more on rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2020/12/17/life-in-the-soil-podcast-2-fungi/

CREDITS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab rilliglab.org

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA https://www.biodiversa.org/

Story consultants: Joana Bergmann, Milos Bielcik, Stefan Hempel, Tessa Camenzind, Moisés Sosa Hernández

Thanks for feedback: Mendel Skulski, Florian Hintz, Julie Comfort, Gerhard Richter, Lena Ehlers

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de

Music: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies https://www.futureecologies.net

Sounds: Freesound.org, CC-Zero

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

There’s a crazy place beneath your feet, a jungle of sand, silt, and clay, of solids and pores. Some of the most diverse and overlooked communities on Earth live here, in a world unlike anything we know - completely dark, of tiny proportions, and full of surprises. Even the air and water aren’t the same. Soils and their inhabitants play a huge role for the overground world, from food security to climate change. What do scientists know about them, and how are they exploring soils? In this first episode of the Life in the Soil podcast, host Anja Krieger learns more about the soil habitat from soil scientists Matthias Rillig and Johannes Lehmann.

Subscribe and learn more on https://rilliglab.org/podcast/

Episode transcript: https://rilliglab.org/2020/12/04/life-in-the-soil-podcast-episode-1-living-soil-a-habitat-hidden-from-view-transcript/

CREDITS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab rilliglab.org

Funded by: Digging Deeper / BiodivERsA https://www.biodiversa.org/

Voices in intro: Katie Field, Richard Bardgett, Yong-Guan Zhu, Diana Wall, Stefan Scheu, Toby Kiers

Story consultants: Stefanie Maaß, Moisés Sosa Hernández

Thanks for feedback: Madara Pētersone, Mendel Skulski and Florian Hintz

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de

Theme music: Sunfish Moon Light / Future Ecologies https://www.futureecologies.net

Additional Music: Particle by Dorian Roy

Sounds: Intro: Saša Spačal, “Transversal Is A Loop”; leaves by iamdylanavery; rocket launch by NASA

The Digging Deeper project was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders Swiss National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Swedish Research Council Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

The research aboard the International Space Station is made possible by sponsorships of Norfolk Institute, Rhodium Scientific, the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, and NASA, with special grants from bio365, Deep Space Ecology, Rhodium Scientific, and the Zwillenberg-Tietz Foundation, and the support of Cornell University and Freie Universität Berlin.

There’s a hidden world beneath your feet, the world of earthworms, springtails, fungi, and bacteria. We hardly ever see these little creatures, but their impacts are huge. In fact, the world just wouldn't be the same without them. Soil stores more carbon than the atmosphere and all plants together, filters water, is pivotal for biodiversity and at the center of agriculture and food security. Welcome to Life in the Soil, a podcast series by the plant, fungal and soil ecology lab at Freie Universität Berlin, supported by the BiodivERsA research network. Tune in to our series to hear more from some of the world’s best soil scientists. We'll launch World Soil Day, December 5, 2020.

Subscribe and learn more on https://rilliglab.org/podcast/

CREDITS

Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab https://rilliglab.org

Experts quoted in this teaser: Madhav Thakur, Bala Chaudhary, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Johannes Lehmann, Matthias Rillig

Theme music: Sunfish Moon Light/Future Ecologies https://www.futureecologies.net

Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de

Funded by: Digging Deeper/BiodivERsA https://www.biodiversa.org