Soil is one of the most fundamentally valuable resources we have for resilience. After doing Permaculture training we were exhorted to “go out and make soil plant trees and save the world!” Decades later and much wiser I’d have to agree that making soil is one of the most fundamentally important things we can do.
A single gram of soil is estimated to contain several thousand species of bacteria.
One square metre of sil can contain about 10 million nematodes and 45000 micro-arthropods (springtails and mites). It has more species in it than 1 square kilometre of rainforest.
This Soils are Alive!!! Conference at Parliament House on 27 November brings together a lot of experts.
Among the program highlights are:
Andrew Biggs QLD Dept of Environment and Resource Management: Introduction to Soil
Dr David Eldrige University of NSW: Microbiotic Soil Crusts and their role in soil and ecological processes
Associate Professor Peter McGee Univeristy of Sydney: Mycorrhizal Fungi and their Function in Soil and Application to Restoration.
Dr Geoff Monteith QLD Museum: Dung Beetles and their Effects on Soil.
Dr Geoff Dyne Australian Government Land and Coasts QLD Section: A hidden diversity: native earthworm species and their role in soil processes and ecosystem integrity
Dr Diane Allen QLD Dept of Environment and Resource Management: Soil Carbon and Soil Health
Merline Olson Soil Foodweb International: How to Measure Soil Biomass
Professor Richard Haynes University of Queensland: Soil Contaminants and Bioremediation
Dr Chengron Chen Griffith University: Global Changes and Soil Microbial Community