Living Soil – a Habitat Hidden from View

Life in the Soil

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.