This past week I read an amazing fact, so amazing that I had to verify it by looking at other sources. The fact: One teaspoon of soil from a healthy forest floor contains more living organisms (bacteria, fungi, protists, and nematodes) than there are humans on Earth. And most of the species in that teaspoonful have never been named or described.
I first read this at the Times of India this week. But the actual research quoted in the article is from 2022. Christine Sprunger, an Assistant Professor of Soil Health at Michigan State University has been studying soil health for years, and has famously argued that "a teaspoon of soil contains more life than there are humans on Earth".
Unfortunately, the important words are "healthy soil". Christine Sprunger, as well as many other scientists, point out that we humans are degrading soil quality throughout the world. Main things degrading soil quality are: land conversion, climate change, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, farming practices that disturb the soil in a negative way (tillage, reduced organic matter inputs, pesticides, pollution, nitrates).
One example of serious soil degradation with terrible consequences was the Dust Bowl in the US. Yes, we need healthy soil!
Excerpts from an Oct. 2022 interview with Christine Sprunger. From Open Access Government: Deteriorating soil health: ‘A teaspoon of soil contains more life than there are humans on earth’
...I think it is first effective to define soil health. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, defines soil health as “the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans”. Thus, on a global scale there are numerous factors that could potentially threaten these living components, depending on where the ecosystem is. ...continue reading "Healthy Soil Contains More Organisms Than All the Humans on Earth"