Life in the Soil

life began in the sea and flourished on land the plan plays a major role of food producer in the natural ecosystem highly productive soil it's not a mere mass of inorganic substances soyal took a long time to emerge as it is now it began to form after centuries of rock weathering water erosion chemical reaction in the interactions of plant roots animals and microorganisms the earliest settlers on rocks were lichen and moss varieties amazingly a thin layer of soil one centimeter deep is set to take over 300 years to form in a country like Japan where volcanic ashes are deposited it took several hundred to several thousand years for them to turn into soil water circulates through the atmosphere and the ground water streaming out of soil contains a lot of nutrients the nutritious water from forests irrigates paddies and fields spreading near this noted Mount Fuji is the oito farm of the nature farming International Research Foundation spring around the farm is the loveliest season of the year with budding trees and wild cherry blossoms in full bloom since ancient times the Japanese have always been taught man is part of this gentle nature with hopes and patience young farmers are building soils seeking nature in the field ten years ago the farm used to be just an abandoned wasteland this is the soil after ten years of practice farming this soil has been developed by human effort a soil sampling stick proves that the softened soil is now nearly 1 meter deep a forest of Japanese beaches the natural soil here simply tells how fertile it is forest soil is very soft because it contains a large amount of air in it fallen leaves and faded twigs will eventually return to nature as soil micro and microscopic animals are the primary dwellers on the fallen leaves subsequently followed by microorganisms such as bacteria fungi and actinomycetes that are invisible to the naked eyes the screen shows how fungi invade the leave tissues here you see a swarm of the carrier feeding on fallen leaves which are gradually decomposed soil under the fallen leaves sunlight doesn't reach this far a lively world of tiny animals which help decompose organic matter into soil the young farmer applied numerous kinds of organic matter to the field to build a soil as natural as it can be this will feed tiny animals such as earthworms to live more comfortably it has always been said in Japan that earthworms till and soften the soil here's a pile of compost produced by man what's taking place here is similar to the decomposition of fallen leaves in the forest the decomposition of organic matter needs the help of microorganisms and micro animals like tiny mites these microorganisms seen under an electron microscope are in the process of decomposing organic matter these are microorganisms called fungi and this is a fungus for these are actinomycetes which become dominant as the temperatures rise due to microbial decomposition at the final stage the organic matter becomes a substance called houmous which comprises a soil frame countless complex microorganisms are swarming around it this is aggregated soil containing plenty of organic matter this structure is created by the combination of human and soil particles silt sand and clay polysaccharides that are long gummy chains of sugars produced by microbial metabolism glue them and form strong aggregation the porous structure of the soil helps store the nutrients of the crops and hold air and water providing the microorganisms with a comfortable place to live in the soil containing plenty of organisms is actively attracting a variety of microorganisms that feed on them bacteria and other primitive animals are swarming around the microorganisms a sample of undeveloped soil in Ohio as it was 10 years ago is seen under an electron microscope this is the soil at present it has largely been improved to a better physical form having many tiny pores what used to be a hard and easy to clog soil has now been softened like this a soil analysis made it clear that chemically it was also a well-balanced soil suitable to the growth of crops also underway on the farm is soil building using plants most of them are either leguminous or graham mineus plants these are clovers sown between the wheat in a variety of Chinese milk-vetch all of which easily decomposed these leguminous plants symbiotically associate bacteria by developing root nodules these bacteria fix nitrogen from the air and later this fixed nitrogen will become available to the plant these are nitrogen fixing bacteria called rhizobia here you see Michael Raizel fungi they invade the root cells and in exchange for sugars they bring nutrients especially phosphorus back to the plant the throw is taken in by the bacteria is dyed in red in this picture Chinese milk vetch is plowed under the soil to help the chemical as well as physical and biological properties of fields the root grows firmly pushing the soil aside countless hairs begin to grow at the size of the root the roots of both crops and weeds break the hard soil to make it softer thus playing an impressive part in soil improvement now let's observe a root growth under a microscope root hairs are growing sideways a plant absorbs water and nutrients using its root hairs what's now happening around the root this is the growing point that the root tip the elongation of roots takes place right here the growing point is quite active in metabolism the old sections continually peel off we can see something still moving in plant cells which have come off then microorganisms prey on them although invisible nutrients are flowing out of the whole route a large number of microorganisms are attracted there they multiply by feeding on the nutrients secreting out of the root when dead the crop will then feed on their remains seen around the root are bacteria numerous protozoa are also observe microorganisms survive by cooperating with the root creating a world very similar to intestinal bacteria in human beings let's now make a microscopic observation of microorganisms in soil fighting one against another to take the nutrients we place two kinds of fungus Spore they extend themselves by standing high fee from the spores who wins a closer look at their struggle helps us find they suddenly stop when approaching each other at a certain point it appears as if some kind of information prevents their further growth in this way they seem to keep their own territories these bacteria hold out against each other by creating a border space between them the thick one is a kind of pathogenic fungi and the thin one also a kind of fungi known as Trichoderma the thin one winds itself around the thick one the thicker fungus begins to melt this indeed presents one type of microbial competition many kinds of nematode in soil feed on fungi and bacteria while some fungi eat nematodes this fungi prepared a trap with its own body a nematodes got caught in it now the fungus ease it up bacteria also feed on a dead nematode bacteria increase in number with a tremendous rate the primitive amoebas which are emerging in front are preying on the bacteria the amoeba approaches its victims by twisting itself the bacteria seen as black spots are swallowed but they don't melt immediately some of them are actually moving around inside the Predators body is the ameba aiming at the orange colored organic matter no it passes it and attacks a group of microorganisms they're swallowed melts slowly and are eventually digested in the amoeba but there's a time when a strong amoeba gets weakened and soon more bacteria surround it their struggles for survival in an unseen underground world where certain ecosystem prevents the outbreak of specific organisms this is the field where the same kinds of vegetables are successively grown every year large quantities of synthetic chemical fertilizers and agro chemicals are used in this field that can cause a large outbreak of soil borne pathogenic bacteria let's study the difference between the soil of such a field and that of a healthy one we culture a suspension solution by dispersing soil into the water and compare the microorganisms coming out of it in the healthy soil with the proper amount of organic matter colonies of various microorganisms can be observed we see only a few kinds of microorganisms in the disease soil here one kind of microorganism spreads over the surface in a laboratory dish growing longer here are the hyphy of Azarian a representative soil borne pathogenic fungi scene on the right is the root of the crime the PFAs areum gets closer to the root hair and invades the root attack by the Fusarium the weakened route is now open to the attack of other microorganisms such as bacteria and nematodes this puts an end to the crops life this is a wilt disease caused by the Fusarium nowadays the Fusarium disease poses a serious problem to vegetable cultivation this is the field where the root-knot disease has damaged Chinese cabbages the same crop has been grown repeatedly here and the population of club root fungi attracted by that crop has been increased Club root fungi hibernate and spores in winter the following year the hibernating spores wake up when Chinese cabbages are planted again the fungi invade their roots and live in them again when farm chemicals used to be unavailable farmers thought of many ways to control the disease in some districts of Japan for example farmers practice mix cultivation planting spring onions and leeks together when growing melons how can this method help disease control we find antifungal microorganisms living symbiotically in the root of spring onions these are pathogenic fungi and antifungal microorganisms at the root of the onion the frizz areum is attempting to extend its high fee surrounding the fungi are bacteria which are the antifungal Michel organisms a large swarm of this bacteria are encompassing the fungi to suppress its growth these bacteria are also capable of melting the fungi NIC's cultivation is one of the biological control measures making use of microorganisms instead of soil fumigation the soil has depended much on synthetic chemical fertilizers and agro chemicals with few organic matters the soil surface tends to be easily eroded by wind and rain the hardened and compacted soil has turned out almost lifeless to revive a diseased soil it's necessary to activate the soil microorganisms by giving plenty of organic matter in the field the old hito farm in early summer farmers have started harvesting tea in the fields with an adequate amount of organic matter soil in a field gets healthy as it contains well-balanced nutrients essential to crops it also contains air and water properly profs will bear sound leaves flowers and fruit so long as the soil remains alive and healthy seen at the corner of the farm is a yard for composting materials it's a nice place for children to play around they want to catch beetles they're beetles lay eggs on the bed log after shiitake mushrooms have been crop their grubs have now grown too II may goes besides the Beatles there are many other macro and microscopic animals under the bed log nature is equipped with a recycling system which returns its own waste to soil with the help of these creatures how about human society for the past half a century man has been producing many things which do not exist in nature these materials have been thrown away after use and the ground has become a garbage pit at present that garbage is unfriendly to nature's recycling system cherry-blossom so the oito farm are coming into bloom again the soil is full of vitality giving life to new organisms the soil is supported by many creatures in nature if the world is considered at a cosmic level anyone understands that human life is just one of the many forms of nature various forms of life pass through man as food and thus man creates soil creating nature on the farm requires mysterious workings of nature as well as human endeavors once interested in the reality one would surely realize how important it is to promote sustainable agricultural practices friendly to the environment that will help us produce healthy food the roots of crops are full of life firmly growing in the healthy soil

Channel: Brendon Rockey

Views: 33,051

Rating: 4.9024391 out of 5

Keywords: Life, Soil Science (Field Of Study)

Id: m20-t7bnsVw

Length: 30min 22sec (1822 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2015