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AG RI C U L T U R E & C O NSERVAT ION . IAM ES M ERRYWEA TH E R

OF SECRETS THE SOIL

The key to healthy soii is the vastweb of complex t sym b io ticr e laio n sh ip s.
HE GARDENER'S IOY is k) straighten up after a da1' spent tillirg thc soil, Lo gcn his tly nrassage or her aching backand heave saLisficd a sigh, survel ing the prepared land, norv ready for planting. The s'eeds havc all been is composted and tlre seedbed readyto .a I r ur t Lr r t ln\ \ e r\ ^ r l c ,.,d . q rra l r) trr e L fied, the farmer leartson tlte ficlcl gatc confidrrt o{ rnaxirnumy'ieldfrom the crop. ln both cases filc i'ield can be a a. . r r r ed h) t lr e a d d i ti .,rrr,f frrL .l rrrr and some rvell dlrected pest control. W .r1 rr .t rrr,r\\dr) r!J add arrltl ti rrg elsel Becarrse sonelhing is missing: tlrr tttitr.L,r' tlrt llrrdidtr in llJt] iliun and biodiversitl', and reduce the irnpactofpestsald disease lrvelsan to ecosystem can lolerate. Il fion earliest times, we had understood horv soils rvorked and had developedagriculture in sFnpathy rvith soil o.rganisrls, rve u'ould never have chosen to use the intcrsive agricultural practices that have done so rruch harm to soils and landscapes. The plough rnakes life easy,but it doesn't account for the ua1 pl arrtr r.al J1 gr , , r r and lilr ng soils funcrion, undisturbed. Tillage has created the necessityfor contlnual intervention and chemical assistance. Before humans, u.ho plougl.red the l and arrd addqd frrtrli. *r and pesli cides? Wild ecoslrstems are self sustaining, rvith a social structure based on co operative interaction
- ,.,t,- ,,.,,- ,- r .- .... 1,- ..

26 r"",.g"n." f,iu ll5 N1&([/,\J,r ]00r,

SYMBIOSISIS A major driving force for everl living organism on the plan et. All living creatures animals and plants,bacteria, fungi and others are inlolved in a worldwide, multi layered n-ebof co-operation. Symbiosis not is an occasionalcuriosity: it is absolutely e\er)\"here. It is usually deffned as t\\'o organisms combining for mutual h cn e fir a r a. t or e r' i m p l rl l c a ti o rr. First, drop the idea of murual benefit. Pro fi ta nd lo. r in s ) m bi o s rs n ra r) i rr ta a n y te mpnr al and dimension. ' pa ti a l Benefit to its components can be more or lessequal, but it is frequently a onesided affair, at least for a while, after uhich benefit may swing to another member of the association;a previous consumermight becomenet contributor. Also, forget about involvement of just two organisms. Symbiosis can o (cu r bet ! \ eenany nu m b e r o [ o rg a n isms greater than one, at any scale from what we rnight consider to be an i n d i vrdualr o c onlinenr-w l d e o rg a n i sation. Symbiosis is infinitely variable. The soil ro which trees, shrubs and herbs are attached contains at least 50% of the biomass of any ecosystern and several times the number of species found above ground. Intact soil is the most diverseinteractive web of interdependent organismson larth, but it is solid, dark and impenerrable. Since we cannot look into soil to see what is going on and understand it, we discount its importance and destroy its very life as we remove trees and clear away all the other nuisance ve g e tat ion. o lhat ue m a 1 " p ]o u g h the fields and scatterthe Sood seedon th e l a nd. S or l or gani rm s .i n m rn d bogglingly complex interaction, sup port the above-ground flora and food u e b s u p on whic h ue r e l ) l o r o u r e \i . tence, whilst the same above-ground flora support soil communities. Vyco r r hiuais a s y m b i o ti ca s s o c i a tion of a fungus and the roots of a plant. It is arguably the fundamental life process on land. Its most usual function is to facilirate plants' supply of phosphate. This essential nutrient generally occurs at low concentrations in natural soils and is mosdy held tightl) by soil particles, unavailable. \fr corririza provides the remedy. For in:tance, rhe roots of Britain's favourire ll,ild flower, the bluebell (Hiilcinthoidrs scripta)operate in an non e n l rr,n l r iF r r r r h er e p h o \p h a L e i s available in soil solution at less than 0.1 part per million. Bluebells cannot su rvl \'( if nc , n t r r y c or rh i z a lfi c r th e i r , short, thick rooLs are incapable of exploring the soil for inaccessible

nutrients. EvolutioD and symbiosis have taken care of the problem. Bluebell roots are colonised by at least e l e r n d i l frrenr mycorrhi /dl l ungi . e nost of rvhich are unculturable, unidentifiable and nerv or unknown to science.They range our beyond the ro o t \y \te m , sorneof them gdl hcri ng otherwise inaccessible phosphate on behalfof their plant partners;in rcturn th ry re te ive carhohydrate,a ha.rt foodstuff they cannot produce themselves. Around 500 million years ago, ancestral plants found phosphate acquisition uncomplicared in their primeval, aquatic habitat. It $-asnot so easywhen, rootless, they experimenl ed with life on land. They collaborated with fungi as mycorrhiza, which enabled them borh to live on land and d i v e rl rfy . rom rhe sl art.co operal i t-,n l u i tl r s o i l fu ngi ua\ l l rr nonnal w a) ol life for land plants, and it still is for an estimated 90-95% of planrs in all ecosystems every continent. on F ro m th e out' er, l runrani ty' rntervention sel in motion a series ol disasters for naturally self susraining, symbiotic communities. Yes, worms, rabbits and earthquakesall disturb the soil, but only in isolated patches rhar all the constituent speciescan rapidly re c o l o n i ' eTl ri s sort of di ,turbanL i s . e built into soil ecological processes for it releases localisedbursts ofnutrients, which promote soil heterogeneity and c ( o s )s l e m bi odi rersi rl . Inl en.i !e tillage affects vast areas, repeatedly exterminating soil organismsby exposure and also, in the caseof the fungi, n h i c h fo rm del rcare,w i de rangi ng networks, causing fragmentation. Destroy mycorrhizal fungi and, though some ca[ adjust, plants that are dependent upon them will die.The fungi rhemselves not so adaprable: are i f .e p a ra re d from rhei r pl anr" . rhei r only source of carbohydrate,they cannot survive. Therefore, if you remove the fungi, plant populations suffer, and if you remove the plants, you kill the fungi. Whether you take the viewp o i n t o f th e pl anrsor rhe fungi , i l i s symbiosis that keeps them alive and symbiosisthat is disrupted by humans, who must share the consequences. MYCORRHIZAI PARTNERSHIPS CAN b e h i g h l y speci fi rand al so rery spe cialisedlf Lomponenrs a communirl of are removed, community structure may soon be compromised. Remove a lot of them, and community structure will collapse. Ecosystem collapse is occuring with the progress of defor-

estation and intensive agriculture, and l l ot i usl be!au\en i l d pl ant. ar e e, r t er minated, but also becausecomplicated webs of symbiotic parrnership are disrupted. Agricultural land, particularly in the 'developed'r"'orld, is probably a worse stalting point for ecosystem restorati on than bare rock thanks r c) !ontami nal i on, and not j u' t b1 pe. t r cide residues.At Iow concentrations, soil phosphate is a nutrient in biologi cdl rommuni ri e\ thar tan recy, . le it efficiently. In agricultural circumstances,where popularions of mycorrhizal fungi are impoverished, we find lve have to keep adding phosphare ro soils so that crops will grow. fl rerefore. r,rheni r i s added r n lar ge quantities as an artificial fertiliser and is not utilised or recycled, phosphare becomes a pollutant. Only phosphate in soil solution is available to roots unaided, and even then it does not flow in soil in the way that, say,nitrare solution does. Excess becorrres anached to soil particles - stuck so that unl ) :,pe(i al i st fungi tan gat lr erit - or is out ofreach to the root system. Phosphaterich soils favour non myc

Fewthingsmattermore to human communities than their relations wrth the sorl.The brology sorlrsof funof da-entali.r'porLdlce Thesusta;nlo d,o )t ot l;{eon Larll- soil remdins lir rl-e'edst u.]de'slooo. pemdps and rhe most abused, habitaton Earth,
R chard Bardgett(Thehologyof SotL 2Aa5)

orrhizal plants, and therefore ecosystems become permanently changed, usually not for the better When we add phosphate to crops, even the few tough, generalistmycor rhizal fungi that have survived mechanical assaultare physiologically excluded from roots by their plant

R r \ur 8" nc P . 2l s M d( h Apr i l 2 0 o b 2 7 N

hosts, cutting off the lasr remains ol .rr\i t lr c plr o. phatc (q L r\i ti L ,n (F tl re ) a lorild receive free of charge in an intact natural communit),. Thereafter, plants must gather dreir own phos phate.The majority cannot, but some can: pioneer, weed and crop species. Grassesare perhaps the n-rostsuc cessful plants in the world. They have refined the highly branched, fibrous root system so that a single plant might have kilomerres of fine roots that can explore dre soil for phospirate r er y ef f it ientl l . C ra s s t-s a n g a l h e r c phosphate unaided. That is what makes them such good crop plants. When humans exterminate plantsupport microbes, just adding rvatcr and fbrtiliser to disfurctional soil enables a grass monoculture such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, sorghum or rice to thrive. For the same reason, other librous rooted crops, such as potato, sunflower, flax, alfalfa and

soya,also seem to do well in mono culture as they too are able to gather phosphate unaided. Many u.eeds and pioneer plants have to be non mycorrhizal because rheir life cycle is necessarily unpre dicrable and they cannot rely on symbiotic fungi arriving at the same time as their seeds.They too have fibrous roots or alternative phosphate acquisition strategies. The most suc cessful lveeds are in the non-mycorrhizal cabbage, beet and goosefoor families, r'hich also happen to include some of the most amenablecrops -for example, rape/canola, cabbageand its many variants, sugar beet, quinoa, green manure . Imagine the consequencesfor soil organisms of non mycorrhizal plant croPsover an entire seasonor more. In rh e pa' t. trup rurati ,,nand [al l orni ng assistedsoils to recoler from unsympathetic crops, but nowadays larmers

repeatedly plant rape or rape/u'heat, for instance, without resting the soil. This effectively deprives mycorrhizal fungi of carbohydrate for a year or mure, r' rl rr,l r i s l atal f or t lr e- n.lt ! \ c want biologically functional soils,we must strive to maintain diver se plant-microbe soil communities, rcturning biodiversity ro agricultural land. If we want to reconsrructnaturalistic ecosystems,why not add mycorrhiza 'w.hen we plant? If only it were thal easy. Like plant seeds, mycorrhizal inoculants are available to purchase, but they contain only generalist,easily cultured fungi essentially fungal 'weeds'- which rnight shou, benefit in simple cropping regimes, but dc) not represent the majority of mycor rhizal fungi found in the natural world, ol which most are unknown and marry that are known cannot be cultivared. NATURE HAS PROVIDED us with food production processesproved over millions of years in collaboration \\,ith evolution. Yet \\,'echoosc LL) ignore, interfere u,'ith and damage them, arroga tl i making r em ed r on rr iat rvhtcl L s er,pen.i rein t im e, m or r r l, i transport, raw materials, environ mental distressand common sensethe basis of our agriculture, rather than co operation. It seems that before we begin to grow food, we rnust first deliberately make the land unfi t for thal purpu.r. HL, \ \ ( \ cr ,if $e took just t\r'o measures we could eliminate the need for the toxic evils of modern agriculture. The first is to cease crop monoculture and follow the mixed cropping methods used in Fa.tern rounl ri er ( r vhr ch m im r c nature). The second is to reduce l l a8eto a practi cabl e. ) il- r onser \ s( in8 lrlntmum. It would be rather like'co-opting' ourselvesinto existing symbioses,col laborating $'-ith and assisring the organisms that support the plants that provide us lr,'ith fcrod.When lve culti vate the land, we can acknowledge rhe natural history and purpose of elegant natural nechanisms such as mycorrhiza, tailoring our methods to suit them rather than exterminate thelr and then have to devise crude alterna tives to replace them. Symbiosis rl/ill prosper Our environment lvill benefit. We will thrive. o To discoyermors obout mycouHzo pleose

,4 pinesediin0 bcnveen plotes, glcss illustroting theyoung how rootsystern extmded is rvidely the by visit <www.mIrywothr.me.uk>. Brorvn ectomycorrhizoi fungus with whichit hdsbeen inocuioted <Do.t(rred(r,rycorh'a.e(> couRrEsy:

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n " .u ,g e n cefi o 215 Mar ch/Apr il 1006