Discovering loads of spores in soil is pretty cool because it means there’s a lot of microbe activity going on, and that’s a big thumbs up for healthy soil. Microorganisms, including the ones that create spores, are basically the behind-the-scenes workers making sure things like decomposing stuff, nutrient cycling, and good soil structure happen. This all adds up to fertile soil.
On February 26, 2024, our team got down to business with some soil sieving. It’s like sifting for treasure but with soil, to check out its texture. After sieving, we gave the soil a spin in a centrifuge with some sugar solution, which is a neat trick to make the spores float up so we can easily spot and collect them. Next up was spotting the spores under a microscope. It was like entering a new world with spores of all sorts of colors – brown, yellow, green, and some with hyphae (those are like little spore feet), and some without.
We checked out two samples: one was zeolite jazzed up with AMF (short for Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi) and the other was soil from sub-optimal land. Want to know the coolest part when we identified these spores? The zeolite with AMF was like a spore party, boasting up to 2000 spores in a single Petri dish, while the soil from sub-optimal land was much quieter, maybe 5 to 10 spores. Perhaps they’re just more introverted? (unfortunately).
This little adventure showed us how amazing and bustling life can be under our feet, and all it took was a bit of sieving, spinning, and peeking through a microscope. It’s a reminder of the awesome, intricate world of microorganisms that play a huge role in keeping our soil healthy and happy!
(These are the spores we’ve identified by their color, shape, and hyphae)
