Redwood Reader

118. UN Report
The new UN report on the state of the environment is a sad testament to our current way of doing things as well as a poor piece of science. All of the scenarios they project are the result of misuse of resources and lack of understanding about glomalin.The state of the earth is poor compared to the recent past but a long way from hopeless. That is because we understand the power of nature and as a result we have new and better tools and methods for sustainable living. We have learned:

Soil is fine mineral particles glued together with fungal residue
Soil is held in place by the soil glue glomalin made by fungi, plus roots and
gravity.
Soil is grown by glomalin conditioning in a few years.
Pore spaces created by water repelling hold water not bound to the pore
Accumulation creates subsurface water storage in the biological zone.
Trees protect the soil by canopy and creating a duff layer that reduce
impact and protect the soil from sun, wind and water, and direct water into
the storage zone.
Trees collect summer moisture from fog causing it to drip to the ground.
Roots provide structure, anchoring and a framework for fungi to colonize and a dispersion method for glomalin.
Trees, brush, grass and even stubble can allow glomalin accumulation.
Trees exchange a portion of photosynthetic product in exchange for water and minerals gathered by the fungi.
Management actions that retain a higher production rate than rate of decay will be the definition of sustainable.
Glomalin is produced by thousands of fungi as a result of every green leaf, needle and blade of grass that produce sugars photosynthetically.
Higher CO2 rates increase plant growth as well as root growth.
Higher CO2 stimulates glomalin production up to five fold
Higher CO2 causes more efficient use of water and nitrogen by plants.
Glomalin is sloughed off into the soil as hyphae extend and then die throughout the biologic zone. Glomalin growth is revegetation at work. It reduces runoff, stops sediment and keeps the soil moist.
Ground water reappears after sufficient storage necomes available through growth.
Glomalin production areas capture precipitation and reduce flooding and runoff.
Glomalin shows watersheds grow and are growable even in rigorous conditions.
Glomalin can quantify the break even point and opportunity cost in development.
Glomalin stores 25-45 pounds of carbon per tree annually.
Knowledge of glomalin reduces losses to dust and wind as well as running water.
Glomalin is destroyed by surface disturbance, water sun or air
Glomalin decays in 7-45 years (2-15% a year, highest turnover in the tropics)
Destroyed glomalin reverts to CO2. Drowned glomalin decays into methane.
Destroyed glomalin reverts soil to sediment that is easily eroded.
Many natural disasters like floods, landslides and dust storms are results of poor understanding.
Ignorance of the working of surface waters is drying out the global landscape causing many ofthe problems named.
Starved glomalin soils lose their stability after decades as glue content decomposes
Landslides, mass wasting and debris flows are caused by starved glomalin deposits failing in steep and wet conditions, sometimes earthquakes.
Fresh sediment must be grown into the landscape by plants depositing the soil glue or it will find its way into the watercourse at the bottom of the watershed..
Spoils and fill remain in flux in wet weather without new growth, act as dust in the dry
Cuts fail because they destabilize the ground pressure and starved glomalin fails
Root failure is not the final end of legacy damage, glomalin starvation goes beyond that, and artificially steep banks and slopes may easily be centurions.
Mycorhizzia are successional, with many more species apparently associated with early and mid
life than old growth. See them as builders rather than residents.
inoculation with multiple mycorhizzia species will accelerate forest growth.
Nonmycorhizzia fungi also produce hyphae but are not using primary products.
Glomalin sequesters PTEs in soil.
Decay fungi have species specific enzymes for digesting whichever products it prefers.
Most organic toxins have at least one species of fungi that can reduce it by enzymes.
Many species fruit underground and /or infrequently, hosts support many species of fungi.
Wildlife thrives on fungi and rodents are the main predators.

Voles consume their body weight in fungi daily.
Spotted owls predate the voles spreading the spores over a forty mile radius.
Burnt areas with stump sprouting trees fared better than other lands, but ceanothus preferred such areas.
Ceanothus roots are stronger than Douglas fir roots, and it may be mycorhizzial as well as
nitrogen fixing.
Aerosol emissions from forests cause water droplets to
condense. ET water can be determined by deuterium tests. We may be able grow
fog.

Surely there is plenty of reason for hope here. We can grow soil, watersheds and moisture. We can prevent excessive soil destruction avoiding CO2 release and loss of groundwater. All agriculture and development schemes can be accurately assessed. It gives us reason to believe CO2 is a useful tool to take advantage of while a lot of it is available. Ecosystems will respond to climatic changes but geopolitical divisions will not be respected. It may be the end of the world as we know it, but it won't be the end of the world.