Our connections to soil health through simile

Authors: Franzluebbers, Alan

Submitted to: Agricultural & Environmental Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/3/2024
Publication Date: 10/24/2024
Citation: Franzluebbers, A.J. 2024. Our connections to soil health through simile. Agricultural & Environmental Letters. Vol 9, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1002/ael2.70003.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ael2.70003

Interpretive Summary: Healthy soil supports the global carbon cycle, the water cycle, and many nutrient cycles to stabilize ecosystems. An ARS scientist in Raleigh North Carolina described the similarities in functions expressed by soil with those occurring in the human body. This approach offers an opportunity for people to see the connections with soil and understand that each depends on the other at some level. The diverse functions of soil are sometimes under-appreciated, and yet, disruptions to global cycles mediated by soil would lead to ecosystem disasters, particularly if plants could not photosynthesize. Just as we wish others good health, so too should each of us (and society) wish a world with excellent soil health. This essay aims to lay a foundation for better ecosystem management using strong science and an opportunity by society to reconnect to the natural world.

Technical Abstract: Healthy soil supports the global carbon cycle, the water cycle, and many nutrient cycles to stabilize ecosystems. We take these processes for granted, and yet, disruptions to these cycles would be devastating if soils became defunct and plants could not photosynthesize. As with the health of the human body to which we rely on to carry out our daily lives, so too does the health of soil give essential life to our world. Strong corollaries exist between the functioning of the human body and the soil body. This essay explores these two bodies through simile. Just as we wish others good health, so too should each of us (and society) wish a world with excellent soil health. A foundational pathway laid by strong science, but pitched to engage more of the public in this effort to foster better soil health might be through non-traditional impressionistic storylines.