Artificial soil: quick and dirty
New Scientist
13 August 2007
Jessica Marshall
Magazine issue 2616
YOU might think it's as common as muck. Dirt cheap, even. In fact, the soil beneath our feet is anything but. Good, fertile topsoil is crucial for 97 per cent of the world's food supply, and without it parks and gardens would look more brown than green. So it's a worry that soil has joined the long list of resources that are beginning to run out - and there is no natural way to replace it in our lifetime. But soon there might be. By mixing together a bit of animal, vegetable and mineral, researchers are turning waste into fertile ground.
Making soil is a complicated business. In nature it develops when weathered rock and decomposing plant and animal material are mixed and broken down by plant roots, soil fauna, microbes and fungi. Over hundreds of years, if the chemical and biological mix is right, the raw ingredients are ...
... Others are trying similar approaches. Richard Haynes at the University of Queensland, Australia, is trialling a mix of fly ash and chicken litter, composted together with tree and garden waste, as part of a government and industry-sponsored effort to turn waste into new soil. ...
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