What began as an engineering comparison of the soils under native plant communities and culivated land has turned into an investigation into what it means to be alive and have a mind.
We never seem to talk about plant predation, the fact that some plants will compete for water light and nutrients is a given but the release of ecosystem changing chemicals to retard competition can also add light to this complex dynamic eg toxic nature of camphor also works against other plants -- camphor from laurel roots and fallen leaves can effectively poison nearby soil . Thanks again
I haven't spent much time on this, but definitely aware of different allelopathic plants and some of the ways, some plants work to segregate their living space. I was not aware of camphor from laurel roots. Thanks for that - keep them coming!
The interdisciplinary questions this study raises are breathtaking. Humans think of themselves as planters. Perhaps we would be better off if we thought of ourselves as plants.
I would take this one step further and say we are NOT the equal of plants in terms of who is doing the work to maintain the biosphere. And as you know, not only do we do little to maintain the biosphere, we are mostly, actively, knowingly degrading it. The truly disruptive difference between plants and people is that we can tell ourselves stories. Those stories don't have to have any basis in fact and can be taken literally on faith. Without a basis in the real real world these stories provide little to no information or motivation on how to work together with all life on maintaining a livable biosphere. In fact, some stories we tell ourselves insist that heaven is beyond this world. I see no evidence at all to suggest anything could possibly be more miraculous than this planet!!!
One of my favorite topics, that I've read up on a lot, but I learned new details. Great work!
(as a very minor side note, the qualifier of "native" plants at the beginning seems a bit out of place, as the mechanisms and qualities you describe are found in all plants regardless of origin)
Kollibri - thanks! On that intro - that is literally how this all started for me. I heard a talk about how the infiltration rates of a native plant riparian buffer were 5x to 20x higher than the adjacent corn field and I didn't believe it! So I started researching it and this is where I ended up 17 years later. Seriously.
For sure, but rest assured I have alot more to say about this. Compaction yes, but also plant contribution to pedoegenesis, preferential flow, network flow, hydraulic redistribution, hydraulic separation, etc. These are all topics to come!
We never seem to talk about plant predation, the fact that some plants will compete for water light and nutrients is a given but the release of ecosystem changing chemicals to retard competition can also add light to this complex dynamic eg toxic nature of camphor also works against other plants -- camphor from laurel roots and fallen leaves can effectively poison nearby soil . Thanks again
I haven't spent much time on this, but definitely aware of different allelopathic plants and some of the ways, some plants work to segregate their living space. I was not aware of camphor from laurel roots. Thanks for that - keep them coming!
The interdisciplinary questions this study raises are breathtaking. Humans think of themselves as planters. Perhaps we would be better off if we thought of ourselves as plants.
I would take this one step further and say we are NOT the equal of plants in terms of who is doing the work to maintain the biosphere. And as you know, not only do we do little to maintain the biosphere, we are mostly, actively, knowingly degrading it. The truly disruptive difference between plants and people is that we can tell ourselves stories. Those stories don't have to have any basis in fact and can be taken literally on faith. Without a basis in the real real world these stories provide little to no information or motivation on how to work together with all life on maintaining a livable biosphere. In fact, some stories we tell ourselves insist that heaven is beyond this world. I see no evidence at all to suggest anything could possibly be more miraculous than this planet!!!
One of my favorite topics, that I've read up on a lot, but I learned new details. Great work!
(as a very minor side note, the qualifier of "native" plants at the beginning seems a bit out of place, as the mechanisms and qualities you describe are found in all plants regardless of origin)
Kollibri - thanks! On that intro - that is literally how this all started for me. I heard a talk about how the infiltration rates of a native plant riparian buffer were 5x to 20x higher than the adjacent corn field and I didn't believe it! So I started researching it and this is where I ended up 17 years later. Seriously.
Interesting. I assume part of the reason for the different rates was compaction from agricultural practices?
For sure, but rest assured I have alot more to say about this. Compaction yes, but also plant contribution to pedoegenesis, preferential flow, network flow, hydraulic redistribution, hydraulic separation, etc. These are all topics to come!