under ground-- how creatures of mud and dirt shape our world

Under Ground Baskin 9 ISBN 1-59726-118-1 781597 261180 90000 SCIENCE /ENVIRONMENT Praise for Under Ground “With fabulous prose, Yvonne Baskin takes us through an ecological looking glass to the wonderland of underground . . . required reading (for all) made delightful.” —Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment “Nematodes, slime molds and fungi are unexpectedly fascinating in this enjoyable tour of a new ecological frontier.” —Publishers Weekly “At last, proper attention is given to the vast biomass and biodiversity at our feet, humanity’s absolute dependence upon this layer of life, and the need to expand science and conservation to save it. This is a well-written and important book.” —E.O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University “An excellent book . . . opens up the black box of soil to reveal the wonders of its workings.” —TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution “Engaging . . . rich and descriptive . . . Baskin’s book successfully gives a face to the rapidly changing field of soil ecology.” —BioScience “Under Ground will be both fascinating for laypersons and extremely useful for scientists like myself who understand how critical the soil is but know too little about it.” —Paul R. Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University and co-author of One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future YVONNE BASKIN is the author of The Work of Nature: How the Diversity of Life Sustains Us and A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions. Her arti- cles have appeared in Science, Natural History, Discover, and numerous other publications. Jacket design by Brian C. Barth Jacket photos: Acoptolabrus gehinii nishijimai (Imura, 1991), photo by Roman Rejzek; 200 species of mites, photo by Valerie Behan-Pelletier, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Interior Illustrations by Joyce Powzyk a shearwater book ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page i ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page ii Under Ground ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page iii ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page iv Under Ground How Creatures of Mud and Dirt Shape Our World Island Press shearwater books washington • covelo • london A Project of SCOPE, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment Yvonne Baskin ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page v A Shearwater Book Published by Island Press Copyright © 2005 The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009. Shearwater Books is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data. Baskin, Yvonne. Under ground : how creatures of mud and dirt shape our world / Yvonne Baskin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59726-003-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Soil animals. 2. Burrowing animals. I. Title. QL110.B35 2005 591.75′7—dc22 2004030330 British Cataloguing-in-Publication data available. Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Design by McKnight Design, LLC Manufactured in the United States of America 10987654321 ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page vi Introduction: Opening the Black Box 1 Where Nematodes Are Lions 14 Of Ferns, Bears, and Slime Molds 38 The Power of Ecosystem Engineers 58 Plowing the Seabed 80 Microbes, Muck, and Dead Zones 100 Fungi and the Fate of Forests 121 Grazers, Grass, and Microbes 142 Restoring Power to the Soil 164 Epilogue 188 Notes 195 Acknowledgments 227 Index 229 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix Contents ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page vii ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page viii wo golf cart–sized rovers named Opportunity and Spirit bounced to a landing on opposite sides of Mars in early 2004. From 200 million miles away, NASA scientists sent these robotic vehicles rolling about the rubble- strewn surface, poking their sophisticated instrument- tipped arms at rock outcrops, dunes, and dusty plains. Their mission: to search for geologic evidence that Mars was once a warmer, wetter, and perhaps even habitable planet. The prospect of life on Mars has captivated dreamers and vi- sionaries for ages. Barely a century ago, astronomers and fantasy writ- ers could peer into the night sky and imagine the red planet’s mottled surface laced with canals or seething with warlike aliens set to invade Earth. In the 1960s, the first images beamed back to us by Mariner spacecraft quashed any lingering visions of canals or ruined cities. If we were ever to find signs of Martian life, it was clear we would have to search beneath the surface of an arid, bitterly cold planet with air too thin to breathe. A Viking lander did just that in 1976: it scooped up material from the planet’s surface, analyzed it chemically, and found no clear evidence of life. That disappointment, however, did not quench our curiosity. Perhaps there was once a golden age on Mars, 1 introduction Opening the Black Box i T ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page 1 [...]... lives and significance of specific creatures or groups of creatures in hopes that you will begin, as I have, to marvel at and perhaps respect the world underground I have chosen to portray the workings of soil life not in the familiar settings of our lawns and gardens but in contexts that I found unexpected and sometimes startling My message is that creatures of the mud and dirt lead larger lives and shape. .. below the surface and are aware of and concerned about the underground world I began to probe for details, to look for situations and stories that would illustrate the work of soil communities and their great relevance to our own well-being From Estes Park, my explorations of life underground took me to the polar desert of Antarctica, the coastal rain forests of Canada, the rangelands of Yellowstone National... microscopic and transparent creatures live in our gardens and crop fields, in oceans and lakes, inside the bodies of bees and horses, whales and us Most of the free-living nematodes in soils and sediments graze on bacteria, fungi, and algae, breaking down the organic matter tied up in these microbial hordes and speeding nutrient cycling by releasing key building blocks of life such as carbon and nitrogen... mites and springtails to ants and termites.7 And that doesn’t count the microbes Despite their submicron stature, the bacteria in an acre of soil can outweigh a cow or two grazing above them.8 Indeed, bacteria may contain more than half of the “living protoplasm” on earth, most of it to be found either in terrestrial soils or in the mud of the oceans that cover three-fourths of the planet.9 Underworld creatures. .. National Park, the vanishing wetlands of the Mississippi River basin, Dutch pastures, and English sounds This was not a journey of lament through ruined landscapes but an opportunity to walk and talk with scientists and land managers who are pioneering ways to integrate new knowledge about soil life into efforts to restore, sustain, or monitor the health of our lands and waters In this book you will... of the earth’s atmosphere and climate All of these ecological services arise from the spontaneous activities of billions of creatures going about the business of nourishing and reproducing themselves in a series of elaborate food webs below the surface Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have recognized the value of the soil itself, often invoking its fertility in ritual and sacrifice Yet most societies... preserving, and restoring the health of soils and sediments are fundamental to addressing such problems as climate change, desertification, declining water quality, and the sustainability of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries worldwide In turn, the health and quality of soils and sediments rely fundamentally on the work of the living communities within them One of the international efforts that grew out of. .. too, are harnessing new technologies to reveal cryptic realms as little understood as the rusty skin of Mars and far more vital to our existence Unlike space exploration, however, the drive to understand life underground is fueled by a sense of urgency Human activities are increasingly degrading and impoverishing soils and soil life, and this loss, in turn, threatens to diminish the earth’s capacity to... marine and freshwater biologists, geologists, and atmospheric scientists These researchers want to know who is down there, what each contributes to the functioning of the soil, how they are organized into communities and food webs, why some communities are richer in species than others, and how our activities threaten soil life and processes Unlike Mars exploration, the increasing effort to understand... understand life underground is not driven by curiosity or futuristic speculation alone The diversity of life in soils and sediments is under increasing threat, just like plant and animal life aboveground, and as a result so is the integrity of the ecological processes that are influenced by underground life By some estimates, more than 40 percent of the earth’s plantcovered lands, from dry rangelands to tropical . 9:01 AM Page ii Under Ground ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page iii ip.baskin.000-000 4/15/05 9:01 AM Page iv Under Ground How Creatures of Mud and Dirt Shape Our World Island Press shearwater. Cataloging-in-Publication data. Baskin, Yvonne. Under ground : how creatures of mud and dirt shape our world / Yvonne Baskin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59726-003-7 (cloth. found unex- pected and sometimes startling. My message is that creatures of the mud and dirt lead larger lives and shape the world we experience more powerfully than most of us imagine. Their