Soil: The Quiet Connector.

Soil is a vast continuum, a membrane stretched thin and far across Earth’s terrestrial landscapes. Into and through this membrane pass the water, the energy, the nutrients that sustain terrestrial ecosystems and their entangled inhabitants, humans among them. Soil is thus a dynamic interface, a vital nexus, quietly connecting an ecosystem’s myriad members, and linking one ecosystem to another. And more, soil connects not only across space, but also over time: soil remembers what has happened in the past, and harbours the prospects of future’s fruitfulness. Its role as connector, across spans of space and time, will become ever more crucial in decades coming, as human numbers and demands expand within the biosphere’s finite, inelastic boundaries. My aim is to contemplate how soil weaves together biota within and among Earth’s ecosystems, and then to explore how we, who study soil and revere it, might better discover, nurture, and elevate this essential, exquisite function as quiet connector.