Ripley said, “Believe it or not!’ Which meant, I guess, that you don’t have to believe it (nothing wrong with healthy skepticism). But here’s something that even I as The Dirt Expert, didn’t believe: our Federal Government, specifically the Defense Department, more specifically the Army Corps of Engineers has a Soil Microbiology Research Team at…wait for it…at the Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, or better known by those who know as the CRREL. Sounds like a bureaucracy within a bureaucracy, doesn’t it? But I digress.
When referring to soil, “dirt” is a bad four-letter word, according to the research team. And, no, I’m not changing my moniker to The Soil Expert. The reason they feel that “dirt” is a dirty word, is because within a gram of soil (not dirt) lives a complex ecosystem of millions of microorganisms capable of performing incredible feats.
“In our field we often chastise people for calling soil dirt,” said Robert Jones, a soil microbiologist at CRREL. “Apart from being kind of a joke, calling it dirt belies how complex soil actually is.”
As it’s been explained to me, microorganisms are hard at work in the soil by performing many different functions, such as degrading organic matter and using the carbon and nutrients for their own growth. The microorganisms also release excess nutrients from the decomposition into their surroundings, which are then used by plants and fauna. Which reminds me of a joke I recently heard. Soil is like Beethoven: he was once a composer, but he is now decomposing.
Sorry about that, I think I need to stop now. See you next month!
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