Apr 3, 2026 · 52 min · 10 segments
Beneath our feet is a world wide web that keeps us all alive. Estimated to be the origin of about 97% of the calories we eat, soil is fundamental to life. But it's a whole living world of its own. A…
Tom HeapHost
Helen CzerskiHostDuncan FarringtonGuest
Simon JefferyGuest
Jack HannamGuest
Andrew BakerGuestRachel CassidyGuest
A little bit later in the programme, we'll be looking at what we can do in our own gardens and window boxes.
So soil is basically rocks that have broken down over time and become intermingled with organic matter, dead bits of organism, dead bits of plants.
Most famously by earthworms, as they burrow through the soil, they leave what are called macropores, large pores within the soil.
Bacteria within the soil generate glues, which stick soil particles together.
they also physically bind soil together as well, and they generate a structure very similar to how coral reefs work.
So when you're looking at the soil, what you are seeing is a structure that's generated by the life of the soils.
So you're talking about this as though it's architecture, which it clearly is.
But how much of that architecture is alive? Because there's a lot of life, but it's not just kind of sitting on top of it, right? It's part of it.
If you can take a big handful of soil, there'll be more bacterial cells in that handful of soil than there are humans on planet Earth.
If you had the patience of a saint and went through to pull out all those bits of fungi, you'd find something between 50 and 100 kilometres of these strands of fungi.
So sometimes they can become protected and that can be a good thing because there's predators within the soil.
So a lot of the relationships that we see above soil in terms of predators and prey, that all takes place below ground as well.
A little bit later in the programme, we'll be looking at what we can do in our own gardens and window boxes.
So soil is basically rocks that have broken down over time and become intermingled with organic matter, dead bits of organism, dead bits of plants.
Most famously by earthworms, as they burrow through the soil, they leave what are called macropores, large pores within the soil.
Bacteria within the soil generate glues, which stick soil particles together.
they also physically bind soil together as well, and they generate a structure very similar to how coral reefs work.
So when you're looking at the soil, what you are seeing is a structure that's generated by the life of the soils.
So you're talking about this as though it's architecture, which it clearly is.
But how much of that architecture is alive? Because there's a lot of life, but it's not just kind of sitting on top of it, right? It's part of it.
If you can take a big handful of soil, there'll be more bacterial cells in that handful of soil than there are humans on planet Earth.
If you had the patience of a saint and went through to pull out all those bits of fungi, you'd find something between 50 and 100 kilometres of these strands of fungi.
So sometimes they can become protected and that can be a good thing because there's predators within the soil.
So a lot of the relationships that we see above soil in terms of predators and prey, that all takes place below ground as well.
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