The Architecture and Biology of Soils Life in Inner Space

Abstract

The unaided human eye and visual cortex are restricted to being able to detect only a relatively narrow waveband of light, and have a lower spatial resolution of the order of one millimetre. Beyond the absolute surface, soils are opaque to such a waveband and hence humans cannot see into, or through, the soil matrix. Furthermore, whilst the fresh biomass in soils typically exceeds many tonnes per hectare, the greater majority of such life is microscopic and hence invisible to the unaided human eye, even when the soil fabric is disintegrated. David Coleman captured this notion appositely in the title of his seminal review 'Through a ped darkly' (Coleman, 1985), which captures the essence of the challenge in visualizing soil organisms whilst in their natural habitat. Visualizing the spatial organization of soil systems, and the life therein, requires adoption of particu- lar techniques and technologies in order to see through a ped rather less darkly, and pro- vide forms of looking glass to reveal the inhabited architecture of the underground.