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Soil Realm
Soil Realm
You may hear the term soil (food) web in order to convey the idea that there are many interconnections. The wood wide web gives agood image of how things may fit together, but we want to go into 3-D
Here we are going to use the term 'soil realm' in order to create the impression that there is an underknown kingdom of soil structures, an architecture, to house many inhabitants.
What does that soil realm look like. If only we had a soilscope to push into the ground and watch what is going on......
Activity 4
Activity 4
Have a look through the Soil Realm below our feet going from Surface through Horizon O then going to Lower Layer (Horizon A) and Deeper Down (Horizon B).
Have a look at the soil samples collected, and using one of the hand held digital microscopes, see if you can identify any of the creatures there according to the creatures and characters here.....
Collecting Soil Samples
Collecting Soil Samples
Here is link to 'DIY' page explaining how to sample, on www.soilanimals.com, where you can find out lots more about small soil creatures
Collecting tardigrades
Collecting tardigrades
Leitz Dialux microscope Objective: Leitz NPL Fluotar 40/0.7 ICT Differential Interference Contrast Stacked image, Helicon Focus
Sample from wet moss donated by birds from our roof Horsham 10-Dec-2021 Temporary wet mount
Method: wet moss that had been scratched from the rooftop by birds and left in the rain for some days was sqeezed out into a small Petri dish and examined under a stereo microscope. Areas of movement were pipetted into another dish using a fine drawn out pipette, only a few drops at a time. This sample was then examined and a specimen withdrawn and placed in a drop of clean water on a microscope slide and covered with a coverslip. The specimen was then located and photographed using a Leitz Dialux microscope.
SURFACE
SURFACE
As much is going on below ground as above. Imagine taking a tree and shaking it, collecting everything that falls out. Then try and make sense of each of the creatures and their relationships. That is is the problem we face when we have collected our little soil friends. How do we know what they do and how they relate when we cant see them moving around. Instead we have a pile of creatures just moving about. Finding way to explore this dilemma is the fascination of this area of world. And there is much to be discovered. And there must be many ways to do so. Trees and soil animals probably co-evolved over millions of years. Looking at that relationship helps us work out the conundrums going on below our feet. Most of the creatures are small - just beyond our eye sight. They are like specs. Start thinking about the soil as the world turned upside down, all the trees going down, and all the buildings underground.
More surface creatures
"Eavesdropping on a cacophony of underground sounds promises to reveal not only what life forms reside below our feet but also how they go about their existence — how they eat or hunt, how they slither past each other unnoticed, or drum, tap and sing to get one another’s attention. 'Life underground is a black box, as we open it, we realize how little we know'".
Ants
Feed on oribatid mites below ground -see grazing - more about these mites below)...
Woodlice
Woodlice
We take these creatures for granted as they scuttle away when we turn over a pot or lump of wood. Yet they may play a vital part in global waring.
From Royal Entomological Society "As the name suggests, many ground beetles spend their time on the ground and few can fly. The fusion of their wing cases (elytra) acts as protecting armour. Both larvae and adults are carnivorous and often specialise in eating slugs and snails, as well as eating a range of carrion. Depending on the ground beetle species, they will also attack aphids and other pest insects. Many ground beetles eat by vomiting on their prey and waiting for their digestive enzymes to make their food more fluid and easier to eat. By encouraging them into your garden you can start on the road to a natural method of pest control. Many ground beetles are nocturnal and need some form of shade during the day. Provide them with shelter such as a log pile, leaf litter or just some large stones...See 'Beetles' for more
Nebria brevicollis
Horizon O
Horizon O
This is the litter layer. Imagine taking a tree and shaking it, collecting everything that falls out. Then try and make sense of each of the creatures and their relationships. That is is the problem we face when we have collected our little soil friends. How do we know what they do and how they relate when we cant see them moving around. Instead we have a pile of dead creatures. Finding way to explore this dilemma is the fascination of this area of world. Imagine the world turned upside down, so all the trees and building go down into the earth rather than up and out. This litter layer is quite loose allowing many creatures to move about, but not providing a stable place to live.
There is much to be discovered and there must be many ways to do so. Trees and soil animals probably co-evolved over millions of years. Most of the creatures are small - just beyond our eye sight. They are like specs. They have to move round either by burrowing or using pores and some other creatures tunnels. In terms of total weight or biomass, worms equal all the mesofauna together; it's just there are lots more of the latter smaller creatures....
Just below surface you can find all three main groups of springtails - Sympylids, Entomobryds and Podurmorhs are found just beneath. There they eat bits of fungi and root exudates, and in so dong help pass on fungal spores. This helps establish mycorrhizal relationships.
Mesostigmatid mites
Mesostigmatid mites
A bountiful supply of springtails provide source of prey for mesostigmatid mites.
Click image to see Meso muunchin.
Symphlans
Another predator of springtails are Symphlans, fast centipede-'like creatures.
See moving Symphylans
Worms
Worms
The worms you are most likely to find just below the surface are the same as the ones used to make wormeries. They are called 'red wigglies' are are one of a group of worms called epigeic. ‘Epigeic’ is the Greek translation for ‘on the earth,’ because these worms do not build burrows, and instead reside amongst decaying organic matter on the soil surface.
Epigeic species tend to have dark skin colour (pigmentation). The pigmentation acts as camouflage as they move through the leaf litter.
For lower layers
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