The Soil Food Web and Soil Health

written by guest author Eddie Bailey

Eddie Bailey, awarded ‘The Assessor’s Award For Retail Innovation’ and the ‘4 Star Tradestand Award’ for his Rhizophyllia stall at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, July 2023.

What is soil health?

This is a much-debated topic but the general consensus is that it is ‘the capacity of soil to function as a living system, within ecosystem and land-use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation.’

If you dig a little deeper soil health is largely measured by the nutrients it contains, its texture, its capacity to drain, and a whole host of other physical or chemical properties. In modern agricultural and horticultural settings, and especially at gardening and allotmenting scale, the biological side of soil health is just a footnote, if not ignored completely. And yet it is the biological story that links most intimately and intrinsically to the gut microbiome and human health.

What is the biological story?

Pictured left: An Arcella Amoeba at 400x magnification

Where to start! It would seem logical to discuss biology in the context of plants given that ultimately our health depends on what we consume directly, or indirectly via consumption of animal products. But that misses the overwhelmingly vital and fundamental contribution of the Earth’s microorganisms. Indeed, plants owe their evolution and crucially their healthy functioning, to the microorganisms. Afterall, the archaea, bacteria, fungi and protists were around for some 3.5 billion years before plants even existed. These incredible, tiny bioengineers and biogeochemists evolved, diversified, competed and cooperated to create practically every metabolic substance, interaction, and pathway underpinning all later forms of life. This is the soil food web, and it is vital that we understand soil as a habitat, not simply a material.

Who’s down with the soil and what do they do?

Underpinning the food web are the archaea and bacteria; it seems everyone else chows down on them! There are protozoans such as amoeba, ciliates and flagellates, and nematodes that graze either on bacteria, fungi, protozoans, or other nematodes, and even roots. In turn the microarthropods will eat anybody. All this munching and decomposition provides the perfect, balanced, organic fertiliser that crucially plants recognise as natural and have evolved to uptake.

Image above: Nematodes under the microscope at 400x magnification

Seeing is believing!

Pictured right: Eddie Bailey’s GX Microscopes UltraBIO microscope & camera setup

Nothing, but nothing brings home the reality and importance of soil as a habitat better than a quality brightfield biological microscope. It’s like peering through clouds of turf or mulch at a buzzing and bustling microbial metropolis beneath. Well, if your soil is healthy that is! And you don’t need a research-level microscope to get involved. I use the UltraBio range of microscopes from GT Vision for their supreme quality, robustness, and value, supported by optical experts and a customer care that are second to none. A bit of tuition such as the hands-on workshops delivered by RHS award-winning educator RhizoPhyllia.co.uk, and you are ready to experiment for yourself, working with your new-found microbial partners to nurture your soil or rehabilitate in cases of inadvertent damage by digging or use of synthetic products. You will find the journey a total joy and whatever you grow, as a gardener, allotmenteer, horticulturalist, market gardener, or farmer, you will see a mind-blowing difference.

Soil health and regnerative agriculture microscope workshops

About the author

Eddie Bailey is a geologist, organic gardener and soil food web specialist who runs soil health workshops through his company Rhizophyllia. Learn more at www.rhizophyllia.co.uk.

All of the photographs listed above are by Eddie.

SOIL FOOD WEB WORKSHOPS

Eddie’s microscope setups: