At Pangea we are passionate about wildlife, nature, and the ecology and habitats of all species great and small. We found the recently published paper on soil biodiversity fascinating and we thought our blog readers would too!
The paper, titled ‘Enumerating soil biodiversity’ shows ‘that soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth.’
The paper was published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’. The Guardian featured an article on the paper on 7th August 2023, reporting that soil ‘is home to 90% of fungi, 85% of plants and more than 50% of bacteria. At 3%, mammals are the group least associated with soils.’
‘One teaspoon of healthy soil can contain up to a billion bacteria and more than 1km of fungi.’
Within our land in Portugal which is set to become a sanctuary for elephants and a haven for wildlife, we are coupling the principles of rewilding with land management practices – such as rotation and low elephant stocking densities – to help increase biodiversity, improve soil quality, and reduce erosion and habitat degradation. This paper highlights the importance of our soil and the how ‘organisms in soil play an outweighed impact on the balance of our planet. Their biodiversity matters because soil life affects climate change feedbacks, global food security, and even human health.’
