Microbial Soil management

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Ian Fitzsimmons

Ian Fitzsimmons
I read this article about microbial management of cotton crops and thought I detected some overlap with the biodynamic approach to soil and crop health. Obviously, some differences, as well. No moon cycles here, or buried horns of dung; and the technique is obviously highly analytical, rather than holistic-intuitive. But looking to nature's own biotechnology to promote a healthy habitat for the crop species of choice is a similar idea in the two approaches.

The business model described is also interesting.
 
This is actually a very active area of research. U.S. Department of Energy is funding it big time, mostly (as in this case) for improving crop productivity, etc. However, we have some of this going in our studies of natural catchments, more for the purposes of understanding than manipulation.

Incredible topic for wine growing and making, but so far the microbiologists are not biting. I have not given up yet, however--maybe collect some soils from the Vatan vineyard and bring it back to my colleagues for analysis...
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Dr. Carl. Thanks for chiming in. What's your line of work, if I may inquire?
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Soil chemistry, water chemistry, and now interaction with plants. DOE funds to understand the carbon and water cycle, but the application to wine growing is obvious.

One of the better statements about the potential role of the soil microbial community came from Anselme Selosse--he seemed to be deprecating the old biodynamic school of thought (cow horns and the like), but showed an appreciation that the soil is a living, dynamic part of the terrestrial system where microbes (the microbiome), soil minerals, nutrients, and plants interact.
 
originally posted by Carl Steefel:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Dr. Carl. Thanks for chiming in. What's your line of work, if I may inquire?
Click to expand...
Soil chemistry, water chemistry, and now interaction with plants. DOE funds to understand the carbon and water cycle, but the application to wine growing is obvious.

One of the better statements about the potential role of the soil microbial community came from Anselme Selosse--he seemed to be deprecating the old biodynamic school of thought (cow horns and the like), but showed an appreciation that the soil is a living, dynamic part of the terrestrial system where microbes (the microbiome), soil minerals, nutrients, and plants interact.
Click to expand...

So he both makes great wine and is a sensible person. Good to know.
 
We people pride ourselves on the discovery of so-called nanotechnology; but so much nano-scale work has already been figured out by nature and is done biologically. What system could possibly break down nutrients and distribute them throughout the soil matrix, at a concentration scale suitable for plant uptake through a well-distributed root network, better than a microbial community - which, in doing so, also largely crowds out anti-social pathogens?

It's also fun to compare the idea of microbial soil communities with the newly fashionable human microbiome, in which bacteria, comprising some 10% of total body weight, generate a variety of by-products beneficial to the host organism.
 
The microbes are not really in it by design, but more as craven opportunists harvesting energy. Some reactions do not proceed at sufficiently fast rates due to the chemical physics involved, but the microbes figure out a way to speed the reactions and processes, harvesting energy while enabling growth (usually) in the process. So there are also limits then to how much engineering or manipulation can be done, since these critters are always working with an energy budget.
 
originally posted by Carl Steefel:
The microbes are not really in it by design, but more as craven opportunists harvesting energy. Some reactions do not proceed at sufficiently fast rates due to the chemical physics involved, but the microbes figure out a way to speed the reactions and processes, harvesting energy while enabling growth (usually) in the process. So there are also limits then to how much engineering or manipulation can be done, since these critters are always working with an energy budget.
Click to expand...

As Stephen Jay Gould famously opined, we delude ourselves by believing ourselves to be at the apex of evolution and masters of the world, but in truth we live in a world ruled by bacteria. 'Twas ever thus.

Mark Lipton
 
I don't think da sein really applies to microbes for Heidegger, except insofar as humans perceive them, but I don't know that I've ever read where he addressed the question.
 
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