soil

media type="custom" key="10623084" align="right"Soil
on this page: cryptobiotic soils related: agriculture, food, garden, permaculture flickr: [|world garden] editing: [|Planeta.com]

This page is a deep dive into the world of dirt and soil. Editors are invited to share their journeys on the dusty road. Suggestions and corrections are welcome. [|Change the world].

[|What holds so many of our favorite places in place]? Spoiler: cryptobiotic soils

Celebrations
https://www.facebook.com/GlobalSoilWeek media type="custom" key="29215215"
 * May** World Soil Week


 * December 5** is World Soil Day (Día Mundial del Suelo)

http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/world-soil-day/en/ http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/world-soil-day/campaign-material/en/ http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/world-soil-day/events/en/ http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/world-soil-day/wsd2016/en/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Soil-Day-December-5/165018620273203 https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldsoilday http://www.slideshare.net/FAOoftheUN/tag/global-soil-partnership

Spanish: http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/highlights/detail/es/c/211859

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Events
2015 was the International Year of Soils http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/en/ [|#IYS2015]


 * May** [|International Compost Awareness Week]

media type="custom" key="27065510" align="right"Cryptobiotic Soils

 * Cryptobiotic crusts**! Otherwise known as "desert glue," this layer of biotic organisms “hidden” (crypto-) in the surface of park soils is rarely noticed by even the most active desert hiker - [|NPS]

Learn more [|Cryptobiotic Soils: Holding the Place in Place] [|Restoring Arid Lands - Katherine Mast/Sierra] - [|@writerfarmer] [|@Sierra_Magazine]

[|Arches: Are national park rules too strict? - Erin Alberty - Salt Lake Tribune] - [|@erinalberty] " I concocted an elaborate fantasy about how cryptobiotic soil is actually a large city of tiny fairy houses, and if she steps on it, she'll kill the fairies. "I WANT TO KILL THE FAIRIES!" she howled."

Ph
[|How to Test and Adjust the Soil pH in your Garden]

Essay
I wonder if anyone at the local organic market will know it's World Soil Day ... or the International Year of Soils. I doubt it

Quotes
The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all. - Wendell Berry

Think of your soil as your garden’s bank account. Whenever you plant something – a vegetable or flower – and harvest it, YOU TAKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE ACCOUNT. Just like money, you can’t do this for too long before your account runs dry – either of money or fertility. - [|Harvest Blend Compost]

We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot. - Leonardo da Vinci

A few interesting and important facts about soil: - [|Iain Young]
 * In a handful of fertile soil there are more individual organisms than the total number of human beings that have ever existed.
 * Yet, due to the inherently large surface area of soil, only 1x10-5% of the total surface area is covered by microbes.
 * All soil microbes are aquatic and rely on thin microfilms of water for their survival.
 * There is more biodiversity found below ground than anywhere else.
 * If you were to replace all the functions of soil by other means it would cost in excess of $100 Trillion p.a.
 * Large dust storms from eroding Chinese soils travel across the world altering local weather patterns, influencing the development of coral reefs etc.
 * Soil acts as an environmental scrubber for harmful chemicals and organisms, stopping them reaching waterways and the atmosphere.

Recommended listening
[|Soils: the foundation of civilisation] - A handful of soil contains about 10 billion organisms. Iain Young presents a range of mind-blowing statistics about the life that exists in soil

[|Soil fertility] - Food production has to double - without using more water, more fertilisers and more land - by 2050, if there is to be enough to feed the world. The answer is improved soil fertility.

[|Enriching soil with biochar] - Adding charcoal to soil regularly over a long period has been shown to radically improve soil and its ability to support crops. Organic carbon in soils is lost as forests are replaced by crops. Gradually over time, the soils decline. Adding biochar is a remedy. It's a method that has been employed by some Aboriginal and South American cultures for centuries.

[|International farming delegates gather in Australia] - Conservation farming is an approach to paddocks and crops that says we should disturb the soil as little as possible in order to conserve water and maintain soil biota.

[|What a waste - the garbage that improves the soil] - All that waste tossed out from the kitchen usually ends up in landfill.Now a project called City to Soil is offering an alternative - the option of turning smelly scraps into compost that can boost the organic levels of soils on farms, local gardens and vegetable patches.

[|Soil carbon conundrum] - There’s been a breakthrough with soil carbon trading that could get rural Australia sequestering carbon in the ground and earning credits for it. Soil carbon holds the remarkable promise of dealing with two national crises at the same time - climate change and our extensively degraded soils. But it’s deeply politicised, and the science is not clear. Di Martin reports

[|Creating an underground map of WA] - Travellers in WA are being encouraged to stop and collect soil samples in a massive citizen science project. [|MicroBlitz]is enticing farmers, families, school children, environmental groups and grey nomads to collect soil samples on their travels or properties which will allow University of Western Australia researchers to build a baseline map.

Elsewhere on the Web
[|Global Soil Map] [|Expert's dynamic secret to rich soil] [|The Soil Carbon Research Program: assessing soil carbon across Australia] [|Soil carbon and biochar frequently asked questions] [|Urine: the ultimate 'organic' fertiliser?] http://www.soilassociation.org - http://twitter.com/SoilAssociation http://wcca2011.org [] http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health - [|@USDA_NRCS] http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/20155002/sos-for-soils http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/soils-deep-rooted-pr-problem

Headlines
[] http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/soil-health-agriculture-trend-usda-000513 http://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/opinion/our-very-existence-depends-on-soil-so-why-is-it-not-protected/ http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/gardens/the-bottom-line-for-topsoil-value-its-benefits-before-it-s-dug-to-death-1.2876873 http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/04/02/297881388/the-old-and-mysterious-practice-of-eating-dirt-revealed

2015
2015 is the International Year of Soils (Año Internacional de los Suelos) Hashtag: [|#IYS2015] http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/270812 http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/en

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YouTube
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wikipedia
[|Soil] [|Minimum_tillage] [|Soil] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_soil_crust

Phosphorus
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Soil-Farming-and-Science/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/The-phosphorus-cycle [|Our ancestors recycled their urine: why shouldn't we?] [|peak_phosphorus_our_most_important_nutrient_running_out.html] [] [] [] [] [|chinas-economic-explosion-is-ravaging-its-coastal-ecosystems] []

Buzzword Bingo
Agriculture - Biodiversity - Carbon - Compost - Cryptobiotic Soils - Dirt - Earth - Ecosystem - Food - Garden - Living Soil - Moisture - Nature - Organic - Permaculture - Phosphorus - Rehabilitation - Restoration - **Soil**

https://twitter.com/SoilOrgMatters
 * Twitter**

Embedded Tweets
https://twitter.com/erinalberty/status/763779532687945728

Cryptobiotic Soils Wiki http://planeta.wikispaces.com/soil#cryptobiotic Writers: @erinalberty @writerfarmer @NatureWriterVgs @Chimani Parks: @ArchesNPS

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