2017. PREFERRED SOIL CONDITIONS OF INVERTEBRATES AT SUNY PURCHASE
December 07, 2017
Open gallery
By: Genevieve Donovan
TWEET: GUESS WHAT? MOST LIFE ON EARTH IS TIED TO SOIL, AS IS A KEY ECOSYSTEM DRIVER! INVERTEBRATE ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY IS HIGHER IN COOL/MOIST SOILS PARTIALLY DUE TO ARTHROPODS PREFERENCE OF COOL ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR GILLS, WHICH ALLOW THEM TO BREATH IN WATER. MOVING FORWARD, PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THAT WE BUILD OURSELVES UP FROM THE BOTTOM. IN ORDER TO HAVE A HEALTHY AND PRODUCTIVE ECOSYSTEM, WE NEED HEALTHY SOIL! #SOILISLIFE
When looking at the environment around them, a lot of people fail to see the interconnected nature of all of its parts. It is common for soil to be overlooked for its seemingly simple appearance when in reality; it is one of the key drivers of an ecosystem determining the life built around it. This study preformed by Zachary Juman, Rob Lamarche, Amor Luciano, and Pearce Pedro sought to determine which out of four categories of soil on the SUNY Purchase campus, hot/dry, cool/dry, hot/moist, and cool/moist, held the most abundant and diverse number of invertebrates. In the end, they gathered that cool/moist soils had the most diverse and abundant number of organisms. This could be concluded based on an arthropods preference for cool environments and their gills, which allow them to survive in aquatic environments. This study leads to further evidence that soil health is key to a productive environment.
When preforming their study, the group found the process of drawing conclusions and correlations based off of their data to be the most difficult step to the process. They found themselves wanting to do more and said that if they were to further their research, they would have preformed the tests in a different season. The unpredictable and cold weather could have altered their results. If further work were to be done, they would have preferred to preform more chemical analysis in order to draw more connections to soil composition and invertebrate diversity/abundance. This study teaches us a lot about life on Earth. Everything that grows and lives is tied in some way to the soil we walk on everyday. It is apart of out lives but we must strive to truly see it more because in the end, soil is life, literally!