August 12, 2005
The Secret Powers of Soil
Scientists get dirty to study the links between life above and below ground
Beneath your feet, the dirt teems with unseen life.
At the microscopic scale, hundreds of species of animals are wriggling past each other in a single handful of soil. And the same scoop can hold billions of microbes, all of which form a tangled food web.
Until recently, the complexity of the ecosystems underground -- not to mention their inhabitants' lack of charisma -- made scientists
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