25/11/2023
Ecological succession & soil building 🌱♻️
📚 Ecological succession is a process of change in ecosystems that affect the structure of the species over time.
1️⃣ Each community creates conditions that subsequently allow next communities to adapt to a habitat.
2️⃣ Gradually, the decomposition of biomass contributes to soil formation.
3️⃣ When mature soil is formed and enough amount of nutrients become available the climax community (stable ecosystem e.g. a forest), is attained.
4️⃣ A climax community will persist in a given location until novel disturbances occur.
🦠 Microbiome consortia are an important part of this process.
-> 🌾 In agricultural soils that are regularly tilled, the weight of fungi is less than that of bacteria (that better tolerate disturbances).
-> 🌱 In grassland areas, there is around an equal distribution of bacteria and fungi
-> 🌲 The weight of fungi present in forest soils is much greater than the weight of bacteria.
🚜 Agricultural intensification has led to practices that may decrease soil organic carbon (SOC) and changes the natural cycling of nutrients in the soil. The adaptation of regenerative farming practices can thus help to avoid soil disturbance and leave room for natural soil formation processes.
📷 Image: following stages of secondary succession (top; 1), soil cores demonstrating the development of a litter and humus layer on sandy soil in regenerating boreal forest after clearance for agriculture (bottom; 2) [credits: 1 - Permaculture Apprentice; 2 -Beth Evans].
