# Transcript: The universe beneath our feet ## Description We can also view it as an important natural cycle that connects organisms with nutrients and energy. Who is Ladislav Miko Ladislav Miko is a natural scientist and expert in environmental protection. He became one of the highest-ranking Czechs in the European Union administration. From 2011 to 2017, he served as deputy director of the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection. In 2018, he was appointed head of the European Commission Representation in Slovakia. ## Transcript **[00:00:00]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:00:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:01:00]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:01:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:00]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:02:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:03:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:04:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:05:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:06:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:07:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:08:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:02]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:06]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:10]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:14]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:18]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:22]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:26]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:30]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:34]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:38]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:42]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:46]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:50]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:54]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:09:58]** www.hradeckralove.org **[00:10:00]** then we would gradually convert all available nutrients, including CO2, up to the efficiency level of photosynthesis **[00:10:06]** into some dead organic matter, and that would be the end. **[00:10:10]** Then it would collapse and everything would fall apart. **[00:10:13]** But it doesn't. It hasn't for hundreds of millions of years. **[00:10:16]** That's because dead organic matter contains a lot of energy in its bonds, **[00:10:21]** created by plants, and when life on Earth finds an energy source, **[00:10:28]** it doesn't just leave it unused. **[00:10:31]** So an entire huge group of organisms has adapted, **[00:10:34]** drawing their energy and building materials from dead organic matter **[00:10:41]** in a process called decomposition or decay. **[00:10:45]** So we'll talk about the actors and players **[00:10:51]** that ensure nature doesn't accumulate this material but breaks it down. **[00:10:56]** Basically, we can say there are three big groups of organisms. **[00:11:03]** As you can see, bacteria, fungi, and what I call critters, **[00:11:08]** there are tons of them, very diverse, which we'll show shortly. **[00:11:11]** And what they work on, or what arises in the process, **[00:11:15]** besides the organic matter breaking down and nutrients being released, **[00:11:19]** CO2 is released back into the air, and the yellow arrows illustrate **[00:11:24]** that CO2 escapes because animals, bacteria, and fungi breathe **[00:11:29]** and consume energy, essentially doing it in a way **[00:11:32]** that results in CO2 being produced. **[00:11:35]** But what forms as an interesting byproduct, **[00:11:39]** though I hesitate to call it a byproduct, is soil structure, soil aggregates, and humus. **[00:11:45]** So let's look now at the actors. **[00:11:49]** The most basic, essential, and important is the least visible. **[00:11:54]** That is often the case. **[00:11:57]** Here we have the so-called soil microflora, **[00:12:00]** although neither fungi nor bacteria have anything to do with plants anymore, **[00:12:03]** so the term microflora is historical and no longer related to flora. **[00:12:07]** These are fungi and bacteria, the workers of decomposition, **[00:12:11]** the organisms that break down organic matter in the soil to its basic elements, **[00:12:17]** and they have the most important function in this. **[00:12:21]** It wouldn't work without them. **[00:12:24]** Then we have many animals that a normal person, **[00:12:29]** even a biologist, would mostly look for in water. **[00:12:33]** Few realize that the soil world is not a dry world, **[00:12:37]** at least in terms of organisms. **[00:12:40]** There is quite a bit of water in soil, partly in the spaces **[00:12:44]** between soil particles. **[00:12:46]** But mainly on the surface of soil particles, there is a thin water film, **[00:12:51]** which is almost always there, even when it's completely dry, **[00:12:54]** the very thinnest layer remains. **[00:12:57]** And in this thin layer and then in those little cavities and so on, **[00:13:00]** a whole range of organisms live, basically aquatic ones. **[00:13:03]** So we can study aquatic organisms in the soil, surprisingly. **[00:13:06]** They are mostly microorganisms, as we see here. **[00:13:09]** Some protozoa, nematodes. **[00:13:13]** Top left is a rotifer, a very interesting little animal, **[00:13:16]** which hunts bacteria and also detritus. **[00:13:19]** And bottom left is a tardigrade. **[00:13:22]** That's a whole big lecture on what tardigrades can do. **[00:13:25]** Those of you who know a bit about soil know that the tardigrade is basically a hero, **[00:13:29]** capable of traveling to Mars without needing a spacesuit, **[00:13:33]** but we'll talk about that some other time. **[00:13:37]** Then we have larger animals, which are no longer aquatic. **[00:13:40]** They crawl through soil spaces; they don't dig their own paths, **[00:13:45]** so they must only go where they fit. **[00:13:48]** They usually range from about a tenth of a millimeter to one millimeter. **[00:13:52]** These are called mesofauna; in soil, they are animals. **[00:13:56]** Here you see a variety of soil mites. **[00:14:00]** These are the animals I study. **[00:14:03]** They are somewhat more represented in my presentation, **[00:14:08]** because I work with them and because their world is amazing. **[00:14:13]** But they are not alone in the soil at this size, **[00:14:17]** there are many other little animals. **[00:14:20]** Here you see, for example, the lower diagonal are springtails, **[00:14:24]** top center is a centipede, top left is a dwarf isopod. **[00:14:28]** About the dwarf isopod, I'll just say that one of the soil organisms **[00:14:32]** you can learn to recognize yourself. **[00:14:35]** Simply, you don't need any studies. **[00:14:38]** The only soil animal about half a millimeter in size **[00:14:41]** that has branched antennae, while all others, **[00:14:44]** either you can't see their antennae or they have straight ones. **[00:14:48]** This one is kind of, I don't know, closest to a moose in shape. **[00:14:53]** Simply branched antennae—that's the dwarf isopod. **[00:14:58]** Notice the springtails; bottom left is a springtail **[00:15:03]** that lives on the soil surface, so it is colored, **[00:15:07]** has long legs, long antennae, and eyes, **[00:15:10]** and if we looked closer, it would also be hairy. **[00:15:13]** Top right is an animal about ten times smaller **[00:15:16]** than the one on the left. It lives deep in the soil profile. **[00:15:20]** When you are in the dark, in the soil, 30 centimeters deep **[00:15:24]** If you never come out in life, it's really pointless to invest in any kind of coloring. **[00:15:29]** Because it's completely useless. Your eyes are useless. **[00:15:32]** Long antennae get in the way. So these animals look completely different, **[00:15:36]** they are adapted to the soil environment. **[00:15:40]** Of course, predators are also found in the soil at this size. **[00:15:44]** These are all predatory mites; they attack the others, **[00:15:48]** they act like health police, they don't catch the healthiest individuals. **[00:15:53]** They catch those that are half-dead, about to die. **[00:15:56]** But that makes them even more important. If we had time, we would show **[00:16:01]** in the top right you can see a bit how the front part, the chelicera, **[00:16:05]** is a huge weapon. You wouldn't want to meet one if it were 2 meters long. **[00:16:09]** And notice that they all have relatively **[00:16:15]** either strong and long legs. This is obviously because **[00:16:20]** they have to be faster than their prey and move quickly **[00:16:24]** to find the individuals they can then consume. **[00:16:27]** So predatory mites. And then there are animals in the soil **[00:16:32]** that we can already see with the naked eye. This is called macrofauna. **[00:16:38]** Some of these animals can actively dig tunnels, **[00:16:43]** and they depend on what lives in the soil. The most well-known animal, **[00:16:48]** of course, even those of you with gardens and composts, you definitely work with earthworms, **[00:16:54]** you know how important vermicomposting and composts are. **[00:16:57]** But there are many others. They can be beetles, millipedes, springtails, woodlice. **[00:17:04]** Here I refer interested people to study millipedes. Czech millipedes are divided into several groups, **[00:17:12]** which have charming Czech names that somewhat describe their characteristics. **[00:17:18]** They are called chlupule, hrbule, plochule, svinule. **[00:17:22]** So it's quite clear what the individual groups probably look like. **[00:17:26]** You have svinuli here in the middle of the picture. **[00:17:29]** So before we continue, I have the first question for all of you. **[00:17:33]** I hope you're on the slide. I see time is flying quickly. **[00:17:37]** Try to guess how long the longest earthworm in the world is. **[00:17:41]** You have several options here. **[00:17:43]** It was supposed to be 60 cm, but that doesn't matter. **[00:17:48]** 80 cm, 90 cm, 150 cm, or over 3 meters. **[00:17:52]** Try to estimate what you think. **[00:17:58]** I'll give you a hint: the largest earthworms live in tropical soils. **[00:18:04]** I just returned from the Amazon, and I was amazed there, **[00:18:08]** because it's an experience to meet a long earthworm. **[00:18:12]** The local fishermen said that if you catch one, you're set for a week. **[00:18:18]** So let's see how you guessed. **[00:18:24]** How long do we leave it? It's still running. **[00:18:27]** It's still running for a little while. **[00:18:30]** By the way, even the longest earthworm living in the Czech Republic wouldn't get lost on this scale, **[00:18:36]** just as a side note. **[00:18:40]** We have the results. Excellent, 150 centimeters. **[00:18:46]** The correct answer is the last one, over 3 meters. **[00:18:53]** I recently held an earthworm in the Amazon rainforest, **[00:18:57]** which was well over 2, about 2.5 meters. **[00:19:01]** It's hard to measure because when you grab it, it stretches out. **[00:19:05]** So it's really a very long animal, **[00:19:09]** and the largest earthworms can indeed be over 3 meters long. **[00:19:13]** They're about as thick as my thumb, or even thicker. **[00:19:16]** It's like a very long sausage. **[00:19:19]** Interestingly, the indigenous people told me you have to catch it quickly, **[00:19:22]** otherwise it will quickly burrow into the soil. **[00:19:25]** Well, it's not that fast, I have to say. **[00:19:29]** I managed it all. Let's move on. **[00:19:32]** Besides the animals that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye and mainly eat organic waste, **[00:19:36]** there are also predators in this size category. **[00:19:40]** Here you have some examples; they are very diverse, **[00:19:44]** centipedes, beetles, spiders. **[00:19:47]** Very important soil predators are ants in social insects, **[00:19:50]** which can, under certain conditions, basically dominate the ecosystem and become dominant. **[00:19:53]** So when we put all this together in one picture, **[00:19:58]** this is maybe a tenth or less of the photos I took **[00:20:00]** based on several soil samples, **[00:20:05]** one thing we must notice is that soil is extremely rich in life **[00:20:11]** and life forms, with a huge number of both species **[00:20:17]** and individuals of soil organisms, making it a source of incredible biodiversity. **[00:20:20]** I like to say that when you're taught about the most species-rich ecosystem in school, **[00:20:26]** they usually mention coral reefs, **[00:20:32]** as having the most species in the smallest area, **[00:20:39]** but some of our best soil sites in the Czech Republic **[00:20:45]** can easily compete with coral reefs **[00:20:49]** in terms of the number of species living in the same area of soil. **[00:20:52]** So I think we could rewrite textbooks and say **[00:20:57]** that the most species-rich ecosystem is healthy soil, but soon we'll show **[00:21:02]** that the problem is whether the soil is really healthy. **[00:21:22]** And quickly, in rapid succession, I'll give you a second question, **[00:21:27]** we talked about it, let me remind you that the main players are fungi, bacteria, and bugs, **[00:21:33]** everything else is there, **[00:21:35]** guess how many species of bugs live in our soils. **[00:21:41]** I told you it's very species-rich, **[00:21:43]** we're talking about the territory of the Czech Republic, **[00:21:46]** let's guess how many species live in our soils. **[00:21:51]** Try to guess. **[00:21:54]** I've already peeked a bit, maybe I didn't tempt you, **[00:21:58]** looking at the voting. **[00:22:06]** The number of participants is growing, **[00:22:10]** no one believes there are only 500, **[00:22:14]** or almost no one, sorry, I apologize, only three percent, **[00:22:18]** guess that low. **[00:22:24]** Let's wait a little longer. **[00:22:31]** Great, so we can take this as some kind of result. **[00:22:37]** The correct answer this time is about 1000 to 1500, **[00:22:42]** but there is one but. **[00:22:44]** The but is that we still don't know a huge number of species, **[00:22:48]** that live even in our soils. **[00:22:51]** So I'm talking about those that are described and recorded, **[00:22:54]** that we know of and that occur in the Czech Republic. **[00:22:58]** Otherwise, for example, just the mites I study, **[00:23:01]** this small group of armored mites, **[00:23:04]** there are more than 10,000 described species worldwide, **[00:23:06]** and every year dozens and hundreds more are added. **[00:23:10]** Only now is it starting to be properly studied. **[00:23:13]** And the overall estimate of all bug species on the planet **[00:23:18]** is well over 100,000. **[00:23:21]** The important thing I want to say is, **[00:23:24]** but when we include fungi and bacteria and all their species diversity, **[00:23:29]** it holds true that if you stand in forest soil, **[00:23:32]** let's say, I see the Novohradské Mountains here, **[00:23:35]** in the Žofín Forest or on Boubín **[00:23:39]** or somewhere in the Beskydy, in a good forest, **[00:23:42]** with Míša you stand in the forest, **[00:23:45]** then under your feet, **[00:23:47]** the universe under our feet, under your feet, **[00:23:50]** there are more species, organisms, species, **[00:23:55]** than all vertebrates, meaning fish, **[00:23:59]** amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals living in Europe. **[00:24:04]** And there are more individuals, pieces, creatures, and microflora, **[00:24:11]** than there are people living on our planet. **[00:24:14]** That means we are talking billions and more. **[00:24:17]** Just beneath your feet. **[00:24:21]** These are incredible numbers, incredible diversity, **[00:24:24]** incredible wealth. **[00:24:26]** There can commonly be about three tons of earthworms per hectare. **[00:24:30]** To give you an idea. **[00:24:31]** So it depends on where we are and what the soil looks like, **[00:24:35]** but when soil is something, **[00:24:40]** it is definitely not just a substrate, but a living organism. **[00:24:45]** Please remember this, it’s perhaps the first and most important thing. **[00:24:48]** It’s incredibly alive, full of life, **[00:24:51]** unless humans handle it in a certain way. **[00:24:55]** I actually assume that business representatives are watching us here, **[00:25:00]** so I took the liberty to create a kind of diagram, **[00:25:04]** where we could perceive the soil as a small company, **[00:25:07]** a very clever one, which we’ll call Living Soil and Company. **[00:25:12]** And here we have the best-known representatives, **[00:25:16]** who are key in this system. **[00:25:19]** And when we look at what this company actually does, **[00:25:22]** its main product is fertile soil, **[00:25:25]** healthy soil, full of life. **[00:25:28]** And the inputs are material and energy. **[00:25:31]** Both material and energy, as I said before, **[00:25:36]** But the company also buys products from living plants. **[00:25:41]** That means living plants produce some energy-rich substances, **[00:25:45]** especially sugars and other amino acids, and so on. **[00:25:49]** The plants push these into the soil with their roots. **[00:25:52]** We will show why they do this. **[00:25:53]** Why someone, when producing something, handles it this way. **[00:25:57]** And the soil critters reach for it, **[00:26:00]** because it’s a great energy source. **[00:26:01]** So they get it for free and also buy from plant roots. **[00:26:07]** Looking at the structure or organizational structure **[00:26:11]** of this enterprise, we have engineers. **[00:26:13]** These are organisms responsible for building networks, **[00:26:18]** dispatching, and distributing resources. **[00:26:22]** Then there are animals responsible for logistics, **[00:26:26]** especially regarding heavy machinery, **[00:26:29]** meaning digging, moving, shifting things, **[00:26:32]** things like dump trucks, bulldozers, and excavators. **[00:26:36]** Then we have light machinery, meaning shredding, **[00:26:40]** cutting, distribution, packaging, and so on, **[00:26:44]** mixing with soil, that's another division with light machinery, **[00:26:50]** that's the soil mesofauna. **[00:26:51]** And finally, of course, everywhere, in every enterprise, **[00:26:54]** there must be workers, and they must be the most numerous. **[00:26:56]** These are the workers responsible for recycling and production, **[00:27:02]** which are precisely the bacteria and fungi. **[00:27:04]** Interestingly, in this enterprise, **[00:27:06]** there must be regulation so that no one goes overboard, **[00:27:10]** doesn't multiply excessively, **[00:27:15]** at the expense of others, so there is of course a regulatory component, **[00:27:19]** which are all the predatory species. **[00:27:21]** Interestingly, in this enterprise, no wages are paid. **[00:27:24]** But interestingly, wages come in this enterprise **[00:27:27]** somehow with the amount of work itself. **[00:27:29]** The more these organisms work, the more material and energy they gain, **[00:27:34]** meaning they are like shareholders of the enterprise themselves. **[00:27:39]** So the more they work, the more they get, **[00:27:43]** so there's no need to push them much, and they really try. **[00:27:47]** Occasionally, minor influences enter this enterprise, **[00:27:50]** and then it can happen that the enterprise collapses. **[00:27:55]** Now, the main outputs or products and components **[00:27:59]** that arise in this system are here on this chart, **[00:28:02]** and they also have some connections. **[00:28:04]** The first thing is that nutrients are released for plants. **[00:28:09]** But it's interesting that organic matter, usually when we talk about decomposition, **[00:28:13]** people think everything must break down completely into nutrients, **[00:28:17]** into CO2, energy, and nothing remains. **[00:28:22]** But that's not the case. **[00:28:23]** A small part of the organic matter remains in the soil. **[00:28:29]** Imagine it like this: the complex organic molecule, **[00:28:33]** the workers and others rush into it, **[00:28:35]** they prepare it in various ways, cut it up, **[00:28:37]** and they chop it with enzymes into short pieces, **[00:28:40]** and those short pieces are then caught by other enzymes **[00:28:43]** and the detritus seems to be cut into smaller and smaller pieces **[00:28:45]** and in the end, there are the released nutrients. **[00:28:47]** But as those short pieces in the first step, second, **[00:28:51]** are free, they have, chemically speaking, sticky ends, I would say. **[00:28:58]** So part of these partially decomposed molecules **[00:29:03]** chemically react together and form fairly stable compounds, **[00:29:07]** which we call humic substances. **[00:29:09]** And in their usual equipment, those soil workers don't have many enzymes. **[00:29:14]** They can do it, but it takes a lot of effort, so they prefer not to. **[00:29:18]** They keep going as long as they have the material, the dead organic matter. **[00:29:22]** So in the soil, a product accumulates, basically a synthesis **[00:29:27]** from the decomposed material, which creates the black humus **[00:29:32]** we know in soil. **[00:29:33]** Chemically, it's very complex, I won't go into it. **[00:29:36]** Thanks to this humus and the activity of organisms, which we'll show later, **[00:29:40]** clusters form in the soil called soil aggregates, **[00:29:45]** and these soil aggregates are the main components of what we call **[00:29:49]** soil structure, these are the products of the soil critters and company. **[00:29:52]** A fundamental thing for our survival, even if it doesn't seem so... **[00:29:56]** we wouldn't function without it. **[00:30:00]** So, here is a simplified version, even though it looks complicated, **[00:30:01]** of how the system works. **[00:30:05]** And those are the yellow or orange arrows. **[00:30:07]** Basically, the plant produces organic matter using nutrients, **[00:30:09]** as we said, sunlight and CO2 from the air. **[00:30:15]** And when that production goes somewhere, **[00:30:18]** either it goes to another ecosystem, eaten by a cow, rabbit, or grasshopper, **[00:30:22]** or it dies and remains as dead organic matter, **[00:30:27]** whether it's roots or leaves, usually near or on the soil surface. **[00:30:31]** Then the soil fauna comes in, those are my critters, **[00:30:36]** and fungi and bacteria, and where you see the strange word exudates, **[00:30:40]** those are root secretions that plants release into the environment through their roots, **[00:30:45]** and fungi and bacteria reach for energy there. **[00:30:50]** It's like an energy drink. **[00:30:52]** We'll show why this is important, that it also does this. **[00:30:55]** And in this process, basically the soil fauna prepares it, **[00:30:59]** the fungi and bacteria both decompose it and at the same time, **[00:31:03]** that means back into nutrients, but also, as I said, **[00:31:07]** they produce humus and soil structure. **[00:31:12]** Humus and soil structure, when you translate it, **[00:31:15]** are basically carbon and some spatial aspect. **[00:31:20]** This means the system normally **[00:31:24]** stores a portion of what it receives into the soil **[00:31:28]** in the form of some more permanent carbon, that humus. **[00:31:32]** Let's call it soil coal, imagine it as coal. **[00:31:36]** It gets stored there and accumulates. **[00:31:39]** And the structure that forms basically allows water retention **[00:31:44]** and keeps nutrients there for the plants, which we will show how. **[00:31:48]** I already drew here, even though we will get to it later, **[00:31:52]** what happens when we add fertilizer to the field, **[00:31:56]** mineral, artificial. Here I have NPK, the most commonly used fertilizer. **[00:32:02]** Notice the blue arrow. The plant gets what it needs. **[00:32:06]** But everyone else loses out. **[00:32:10]** Mineral fertilizer has no organic bonds, it's phosphate, **[00:32:14]** nitrogen, potassium, inorganic, mineral, that's why it's called mineral. **[00:32:18]** There is no usable energy, so basically, **[00:32:23]** we just dump it on the plant, it grows, and the whole soil system **[00:32:27]** is like written off. It gets no energy. This is important. **[00:32:33]** Now let's talk about a very complex thing, **[00:32:37]** which I will try to explain simply. **[00:32:42]** I say, why are there actually hundreds and thousands of species in the soil, **[00:32:47]** when the functions described here are maybe ten, **[00:32:51]** or even if there were twenty, that they need to ensure. **[00:32:55]** Why do we have hundreds, thousands of species in each place? **[00:32:59]** It's important to know that the more species we have, the greater the chance **[00:33:05]** that the system will function under different conditions. **[00:33:08]** We call this functional redundancy, that several organisms **[00:33:12]** perform exactly the same function. And I call it a happiness insurance. **[00:33:18]** Because it works like this, on the graph on the left you see rectangles. **[00:33:22]** These are individual species, for example of mites, but they can be bacteria, **[00:33:26]** fungi, or anything. **[00:33:29]** They are species that ensure one single function. **[00:33:33]** For example, in this case, breaking down organic litter. **[00:33:37]** And the rectangle on the bottom axis shows the tolerance of that species **[00:33:42]** to environmental conditions. We can say below that it is temperature **[00:33:46]** or moisture. Species F has a wide range, it can live in very dry **[00:33:51]** and relatively moist environments, while species E is strictly **[00:33:56]** moisture-loving and species B is strictly dry-loving. **[00:34:00]** And now they all do the same thing. And the range of normal conditions, **[00:34:04]** which is in your field or garden, is somewhere in that green column. **[00:34:08]** When you come there and stick our probe in, you'll find the second A, B, C, D, **[00:34:14]** very rarely E, F, and plenty of G, H won't be there. **[00:34:19]** And you might wonder, what's the point of this if one would work just fine. **[00:34:23]** But the trick is that this year, in February and March, **[00:34:29]** you might have 25 degrees on one day and everything shifts somewhere else. **[00:34:35]** And many of the species that can function under normal conditions, **[00:34:39]** are suddenly out. They can't function. **[00:34:42]** And thankfully, we have species that tolerate these different conditions, **[00:34:47]** and they ensure it. This effect ensures that our soil **[00:34:52]** actually works across a wide range, even when we damage it, **[00:34:56]** when we really do terrible things to it, there's usually still **[00:35:01]** some species that secures the function we need there. **[00:35:06]** It has two aspects, one positive and one negative. **[00:35:11]** The positive is that despite everything we do to the soil, **[00:35:16]** it still more or less functions. **[00:35:19]** But at the same time, it somewhat masks its true condition. **[00:35:23]** If we don't look at how many species are there, we don't know **[00:35:27]** if it's running on the last species, **[00:35:31]** which is barely holding on and almost at its limit. **[00:35:35]** Or if there are still ten species sharing the load. **[00:35:40]** So, in many places, even if it seems to work on the surface, **[00:35:44]** we might be just one step away from system collapse. **[00:35:49]** And without looking at what lives in the soil, **[00:35:52]** it's very hard to know the real state. **[00:35:56]** You have it drawn in the diagrams. **[00:35:58]** On the far right is when we apply fertilizer directly to the plant. **[00:36:01]** There is no room for anything else. **[00:36:06]** Either we add it or we don't. **[00:36:08]** The plant simply has none and dies. That's hydroponics. **[00:36:12]** On the left is the natural system. **[00:36:14]** At every level, the red ones are the regulators, **[00:36:17]** at each level there are several paths for organic matter, **[00:36:21]** the material, and finally the nutrients to reach the plant. **[00:36:24]** And if something fails, there's still some path left. **[00:36:28]** In the middle are simplified conditions, like on our intensive fields, **[00:36:32]** where there are only a few organisms at each level. **[00:36:36]** Usually with bacteria it's still relatively good, **[00:36:39]** because they are very adaptable, **[00:36:41]** but the risk of collapse is much higher there. **[00:36:45]** And now it's starting to get complicated. **[00:36:48]** But the soil system is simply complex. **[00:36:51]** Here we just want to say, **[00:36:54]** that when we talk about the flow of organic matter and nutrients, **[00:36:58]** we're talking about some energy transfer, **[00:37:01]** which was in the dead organic matter. **[00:37:04]** Basically, that energy flows in the soil system through three paths, **[00:37:09]** called three channels. **[00:37:11]** Bacterial, fungal, and root. **[00:37:13]** Now the important part is, and here we'll explain, **[00:37:16]** why the plant sends nutrients into the roots and soil. **[00:37:20]** Why doesn't it keep them when it produces them? **[00:37:22]** Imagine you have a company, you produce something, **[00:37:24]** and then you go out on the street and start giving it away. **[00:37:27]** That doesn't make much sense. **[00:37:29]** But in soil, it does make sense. **[00:37:31]** The trick is, **[00:37:33]** the plant needs those bacteria and fungi, **[00:37:37]** to supply nutrients, water, minerals, etc. **[00:37:41]** And the bacteria do this where they are. **[00:37:44]** The fungi do this where they are. **[00:37:46]** They do it for themselves. **[00:37:48]** They need that energy for themselves. **[00:37:50]** However, when you have a cheap energy source, **[00:37:54]** even these creatures think **[00:37:58]** and won't work hard breaking down, **[00:38:01]** some tough cellulose, **[00:38:03]** when they can cover part of their energy needs with sugar. **[00:38:08]** You'd rather have, I don't know, honey than sawdust for breakfast. **[00:38:14]** I think everyone understands that. **[00:38:16]** So the bacteria look for where they have good cheap energy. **[00:38:20]** And the plant knows that. **[00:38:22]** So it sends them sugar. **[00:38:24]** That's the fastest, best, sweetest energy. **[00:38:27]** And the bacteria say, **[00:38:29]** I won't struggle somewhere in the soil where I don't have it. **[00:38:33]** I'll go to the roots where the sugar is. **[00:38:35]** And their populations grow there, as do the fungi. **[00:38:39]** There they break down the dead organic matter. **[00:38:42]** And the plant immediately gets those minerals in return, **[00:38:46]** the nutrients it needs. **[00:38:48]** That means they kind of pay each other. **[00:38:50]** The plant pays with sugar, the bacteria pay with nutrients. **[00:38:54]** And that's how it beautifully works. **[00:38:56]** It's an extremely important energy source. **[00:38:58]** And now the difference between fungi and bacteria. **[00:39:01]** And bacteria prefer more stable moisture, **[00:39:04]** so they are usually deeper in the soil under those conditions. **[00:39:07]** Where the moisture is relatively stable. **[00:39:09]** It doesn't fluctuate as much. **[00:39:13]** While fungi have filaments. **[00:39:16]** The largest fungal organism can cover several hectares underground. **[00:39:19]** Have you heard about it? Like Armillaria. **[00:39:21]** Or several tons. Definitely, the blue whale is not the largest organism on our planet. **[00:39:26]** It’s probably some fungus, **[00:39:28]** which might weigh several, maybe even tens of tons, **[00:39:32]** and cover 4 hectares or even more. **[00:39:35]** And when there’s no water in a given spot, **[00:39:39]** the fungus has pipelines to pull it from where it is. **[00:39:43]** This is important for plants because they interact. **[00:39:47]** So with bacteria, the plant lets them into its root, **[00:39:51]** where they form so-called root nodules, **[00:39:54]** and the bacteria capture atmospheric nitrogen when there’s little in the soil. **[00:39:58]** That’s what legumes can do. **[00:40:00]** Legumes, also called the pea family, or the older name 'motýlokvět'. **[00:40:07]** Fungi provide mainly minerals, the most important being phosphates from far away, **[00:40:14]** and they have a relationship with the root, where they enter or wrap around it, called mycorrhiza. **[00:40:20]** They connect the soil world over a much wider area, delivering water and nutrients, **[00:40:26]** and in return, they get energy from the plant. **[00:40:30]** We could talk in another lecture about how both the fungus and the plant interact **[00:40:37]** with multiple partners. They don’t have just one fungus. **[00:40:41]** They have several, and the fungus has several plants. **[00:40:45]** So what develops in the forest or natural soil is a network of different plants **[00:40:51]** connected through fungal filaments. These filaments work along concentration gradients of certain substances. **[00:41:00]** So whenever there are differences, there’s a place where there’s a lot of something and a place where there’s little, **[00:41:08]** and between them is a tube where something probably happens. I’m simplifying a lot. **[00:41:13]** Experts would correct me now; it’s not just a tube, it’s a complex process. **[00:41:18]** But anyway, substances spread along the concentration gradient. **[00:41:22]** So we have something we can call, as Mr. Wolleben calls it, the forest internet. **[00:41:29]** And when a tree is attacked by pests, it starts defending itself against them, **[00:41:34]** it starts producing some substances, but those substances are detected by the mycorrhiza, **[00:41:38]** because there are more of them in the tree than those that are not infected. **[00:41:42]** It begins to spread and the surrounding trees get a signal from the sick one, **[00:41:47]** something is eating me. So they start producing defensive substances, **[00:41:51]** even before they are infected, because a signal came through the internet, **[00:41:55]** defend yourself. Interestingly, it's not an internet like, **[00:42:00]** just a wire, because the fungus still decides about it. **[00:42:04]** It still decides where to send it and where not to send it and what it takes for itself. **[00:42:08]** It's much more complex, it's chemical, biochemical, **[00:42:11]** but it's fascinating and it just shows why it's not good, **[00:42:15]** for example, when we are in a natural forest, **[00:42:19]** I don't want to get into the discussion about commercial forests now, **[00:42:23]** but when we are in a natural forest and a beetle attacks us, **[00:42:27]** for example, some spruce, and we notice it a little, **[00:42:31]** we tend to cut down and remove that tree immediately. **[00:42:36]** Like, yes, the beetle won't multiply on it **[00:42:40]** and won't fly around, but the tree doesn't have time to send a signal **[00:42:44]** to the others, so if we have some external source, **[00:42:47]** the infection that flies in anyway, **[00:42:50]** we don't warn the other trees to prepare, **[00:42:54]** and gradually we end up cutting them all down. **[00:42:57]** Whereas when the natural system works, **[00:43:00]** it works for a while, because it's a bit like a fire, **[00:43:04]** but then suddenly the strength of the forest's preparedness **[00:43:08]** is such that, together with external conditions of course, **[00:43:12]** the infection can actually be stopped and the forest can mainly recover. **[00:43:16]** So a very important thing. **[00:43:18]** Another interesting process that happens during decomposition, **[00:43:22]** I called it the microbial gambit. **[00:43:24]** Who here plays chess, that's not a question, **[00:43:26]** but some of you know what a gambit is. **[00:43:29]** A gambit is when I sacrifice, for example, the queen, that's the queen's gambit. **[00:43:32]** I sacrifice the queen, which is the strongest piece, **[00:43:35]** and basically that would mean I lost. **[00:43:39]** But there are game variations where by sacrificing the queen, **[00:43:42]** I can actually win the whole match. **[00:43:45]** So I sacrifice something very valuable to gain. **[00:43:49]** And that's exactly what bacteria and fungi do, they sacrifice themselves. **[00:43:53]** They let themselves be eaten. What kind of logic is that? **[00:43:56]** You let yourself be eaten to win the battle. **[00:43:59]** But the trick is that they actually grow **[00:44:02]** on dead organic matter, the green square is a cutout **[00:44:05]** of some dead leaf, and into that grow **[00:44:08]** the fungi and bacteria, and they can only grow **[00:44:11]** on the surfaces they have available. **[00:44:14]** Those surfaces have a certain area, they grow over it **[00:44:17]** and once it's fully covered, they can't reproduce anymore, **[00:44:20]** there can't be more of them. But then bugs come **[00:44:23]** and they like to eat those fungi and bacteria. **[00:44:28]** But, I don't know who among you, **[00:44:33]** knows what knäckebröd is, right? And if you've ever spread **[00:44:37]** just jam or just honey on knäckebröd. **[00:44:41]** Try it sometime, then try to eat just the honey from it. **[00:44:47]** You can't. It soaks in, it sticks there, **[00:44:51]** so if you want honey, you have to chew the whole knäckebröd. **[00:44:54]** And this applies to soil too. **[00:44:59]** There are fungi and bacteria, then mites and all those bugs come **[00:45:03]** and want to eat the bacteria and fungi, but they can't separate them, **[00:45:07]** so they have no choice but to cut up the dead organic matter too. **[00:45:11]** So they nibble, eating everything, **[00:45:14]** but by doing that, they actually do what you see on the cube on the right, **[00:45:17]** the cube originally has a certain surface area, **[00:45:20]** but by cutting it into small pieces, **[00:45:24]** the surface area multiplies. **[00:45:28]** So a few bacteria might be eaten, **[00:45:31]** but suddenly they have maybe six times more surface area available **[00:45:35]** and their populations can grow, same with fungi, etc. **[00:45:39]** It significantly increases substrate availability, **[00:45:43]** which also increases the rate of decomposition, **[00:45:46]** which is good for the plants, but at the same time those populations, **[00:45:50]** fungi and bacteria, win by letting themselves be eaten. **[00:45:53]** That's why it's called the microbial gambit. **[00:45:56]** Now we're at the most important part. **[00:45:59]** What I think is most important in soil is a good, healthy soil structure. **[00:46:04]** And now, how that structure forms: we have dead litter, **[00:46:08]** bugs cut it up, fragment it, **[00:46:12]** bacteria and fungi start decomposing it, humic substances form, **[00:46:15]** and as they live, they also produce various products. **[00:46:19]** We can call it slime, we can call it mucilage, **[00:46:23]** we can call it whatever. **[00:46:26]** Of course, it has its own technical terms. **[00:46:29]** Basically, the most well-known word from recent science is glomalin, **[00:46:34]** which is a product of certain types of fungi. **[00:46:37]** And they act like a pretty perfect glue. **[00:46:41]** Imagine you have tiny soil particles of clay and sand, **[00:46:45]** and suddenly there's something like, I don't know, what would I compare it to, **[00:46:49]** a dispersive glue that binds everything together nicely. **[00:46:55]** And if that wasn't enough, besides sticking with bacteria **[00:47:02]** and fungi, those fungi have a fibrous structure and they grow through it, **[00:47:06]** so they wrap it into a kind of basket. **[00:47:10]** What forms is called a soil aggregate. **[00:47:14]** And that soil aggregate holds together quite well. **[00:47:16]** If you have healthy soil and put it in a strainer like a tea strainer, **[00:47:20]** and slowly pour water over it, **[00:47:26]** almost clear water will flow through. **[00:47:29]** If you have soil with a broken structure and do the same, **[00:47:34]** the water that flows through will be cloudy, **[00:47:37]** and some soil will partially disappear from the strainer. **[00:47:40]** This is how you can tell if the soil really has a good structure. **[00:47:44]** Good structure means soil aggregates are formed. **[00:47:48]** Now let's talk about why soil structure is so incredibly important. **[00:47:52]** I'm really running out of time. **[00:47:54]** This is a view through a scanning electron microscope **[00:47:57]** into such a soil aggregate. **[00:47:59]** Notice, it's hard to even describe how incredibly complex this space is. **[00:48:03]** It simply has fibers, lamellae, spaces of various shapes, **[00:48:09]** larger, smaller, cracks. **[00:48:13]** If your size is, say, a thousandth **[00:48:18]** or a hundredth of this area and you have to move through it, **[00:48:23]** you're in a wildly complex landscape. **[00:48:26]** Finding a friend can be quite a challenge, **[00:48:29]** because it's just so complicated. **[00:48:32]** The basis of soil structure, however, is the mineral substances, **[00:48:36]** the clay and sand present there. **[00:48:38]** And the clay minerals are important. **[00:48:40]** They have layers in their structure. **[00:48:42]** And they actually have sites where molecules can chemically bind, **[00:48:46]** ions, nutrients, those mineral substances, **[00:48:49]** which the plant takes up. **[00:48:51]** These are the empty spots schematically shown there. **[00:48:54]** It could be calcium or, I don't know, **[00:48:58]** nitrate, new ions, and so on. **[00:49:01]** And when the plant needs it, it either takes it from the soil solution, **[00:49:05]** dissolved in the soil, but it can also exchange **[00:49:09]** those mineral substances, **[00:49:13]** swapping them chemically for a hydrogen proton. **[00:49:16]** So it gives a proton and takes what it needs. **[00:49:19]** Another trade. **[00:49:21]** So it trades with the soil and clay minerals too. **[00:49:24]** But the number of binding sites is limited. **[00:49:28]** And as you can see, it only catches one type of molecule, **[00:49:34]** which are cations. **[00:49:36]** But when an organic molecule, some humic substance, **[00:49:41]** comes in, **[00:49:43]** it's more branched and tangled. **[00:49:46]** It can bind a much larger amount of mineral ions. **[00:49:52]** And besides cations, it can also bind anions. **[00:49:54]** That means when nutrients enter the soil, **[00:49:58]** even if you pour in NPK fertilizer, **[00:50:00]** you have two options. Either it stays in the soil solution and some binds to clay minerals, **[00:50:06]** depending on how many there are and how saturated they are, **[00:50:09]** or you have a lot of humus, and the nutrients hang on to the hooks in that pantry and stay there. **[00:50:16]** So when a heavy rain comes, if it's in solution, the rain will wash it away with the solution. **[00:50:23]** It ends up in a pond, which then blooms because of the nutrients, something we all know from our landscape. **[00:50:29]** That means the soil structure is probably not right. **[00:50:32]** Whereas if it's bound there chemically, the water passes through, **[00:50:38]** but the nutrients stay chemically bound, remain in place, and the plant can take them when needed. **[00:50:43]** It doesn't have to be exactly when we add them in the water solution. **[00:50:47]** So this is very important. **[00:50:50]** And before we look at the next slide, I have one last question for you, **[00:50:54]** and I'll pick the time later because it's flying by. **[00:50:58]** Try to guess, when we talk about plant production, **[00:51:03]** which soil organisms then transform and produce from, **[00:51:08]** besides nutrients, the soil structure, they need organic matter. **[00:51:12]** But if we take the total plant production, specifically in the Czech Republic, **[00:51:16]** how much of that do you think humans appropriate? **[00:51:19]** And you have options: up to 20%, up to 40%, up to 50%, or over 50%? **[00:51:27]** I don't know if those of you interested might have read about it somewhere. **[00:51:32]** One study was done, so we have it documented and calculated. **[00:51:37]** But it's for aboveground biomass, to be precise. **[00:51:48]** So, I see how it's developing. **[00:51:51]** Two extremes are competing for victory, **[00:51:54]** either up to 20% or over 50%, this will be interesting. **[00:52:00]** Imagine that from all that is produced here, **[00:52:03]** what grows in the forest, what grows in the field, what grows on the meadow, **[00:52:07]** from all of that, how much does...? **[00:52:10]** The correct term is appropriation of primary production, **[00:52:14]** a strange, foreign word. **[00:52:17]** But simply put, what humans take and use for their needs. **[00:52:24]** Well, I think since time is flying, **[00:52:28]** I'll cut here and see how it turned out. **[00:52:32]** So, up to 20% won. **[00:52:35]** So it's not up to 20%. **[00:52:38]** Up to 20% is maybe in places where people still live, **[00:52:45]** in nature, like in the Amazon or Southeast Asia, **[00:52:50]** where oil palms haven't replaced forests yet, **[00:52:56]** there it's up to 20%. **[00:52:59]** In all of Europe and here with us, it's no different, **[00:53:02]** it ranges around 40, 45 percent and more. **[00:53:10]** According to the study, here it's over 50%. **[00:53:13]** In other words, half or more of what **[00:53:18]** nature produces is taken by humans. **[00:53:21]** But why do I say this? I say it because **[00:53:24]** for all other organisms, not just soil ones, **[00:53:27]** compared to the original state, **[00:53:31]** we leave only half the energy available, **[00:53:35]** that the system had before. **[00:53:37]** Few realize this. It's not just about taking it. **[00:53:40]** It's about the energy it contains. **[00:53:42]** And I usually burn that energy. We humans burn it, **[00:53:45]** we make heat and CO2 from it, both of which we like a lot. **[00:53:49]** And for those organisms, only half remains. **[00:53:52]** Here you have, from older Czech studies, a summary. **[00:53:58]** If we take the forest as 100%, here is how many grams **[00:54:02]** per square meter are produced aboveground and underground per year. **[00:54:05]** It's a rough average, it varies a lot. **[00:54:08]** But let's say aboveground is about a kilo **[00:54:11]** and underground a bit over half a kilo under normal conditions. **[00:54:15]** If we turn that into a meadow, we have much less aboveground, **[00:54:19]** but underground, surprise, almost the same as in the forest. **[00:54:23]** That means a natural meadow has a rich root system **[00:54:26]** and actually most of that biomass is underground. **[00:54:29]** Then we make a field. On that field, we increase the aboveground production, **[00:54:34]** because we breed the grain and so on, **[00:54:37]** so it doubles compared to the meadows. **[00:54:40]** However, underground there is almost nothing. Do you know why? **[00:54:43]** I could have asked that. I'll just answer you, **[00:54:46]** because I don't have time. Because we flood the plant with nutrients, **[00:54:50]** and when it has an excess, **[00:54:54]** it has no reason to invest in building roots. **[00:54:59]** Why would it, when a small root is enough **[00:55:02]** so it doesn't completely fall over? To take what it needs. **[00:55:06]** Moreover, we leave the soil bare for about three to five months **[00:55:10]** of the season. Not even twelve. For example, **[00:55:13]** spring cereals are sown sometimes in March **[00:55:16]** and harvested in August. So they don't develop **[00:55:20]** a large root system. So suddenly, **[00:55:23]** if we take everything including the aboveground production, **[00:55:26]** we practically remove it all. **[00:55:29]** We take the grain and then return the rest with manure, **[00:55:32]** but nowadays we even take the straw, **[00:55:35]** to produce energy or heat or something, **[00:55:38]** and on intensive fields, please note, **[00:55:42]** I did some calculations, only five to ten percent of the original energy and biomass production **[00:55:46]** that was once there remains on that spot. **[00:55:50]** Only five to ten percent remains on the site. **[00:55:54]** Then the workers down there grind it up, right? **[00:55:57]** They take from what remains. **[00:56:01]** And I'm not kidding, you can see it in this picture, **[00:56:05]** these are two maps. On the left is agricultural intensity, **[00:56:09]** on the right is soil organic carbon content. **[00:56:12]** What we see is that where agriculture is most intensive, **[00:56:16]** by the way, a look back five thousand years, **[00:56:19]** when people started making their fields, **[00:56:23]** when the Neolithic revolution began and we became farmers, **[00:56:26]** definitely not on the rocky infertile soils. **[00:56:30]** It was in alluvial areas, around rivers where the soil was most fertile, **[00:56:34]** where things grew best. That was on soil with **[00:56:38]** the highest organic carbon. That's the key, the most humus. **[00:56:42]** If you look at the map on the right, you can now see, **[00:56:45]** where we have the most intensive agriculture, **[00:56:48]** the color yellow is the lightest. **[00:56:51]** So there isn't the most organic carbon there, **[00:56:54]** but slowly, except for deserts and some other places, **[00:56:57]** the least. Over the last five thousand years, **[00:57:00]** but mainly in the last roughly 80 years, **[00:57:03]** since we have intensive agriculture and mineral fertilization. **[00:57:07]** We are turning off the natural cycle of carbon creation and storage **[00:57:11]** and basically consuming the carbon that is in the soil. **[00:57:15]** And we have reduced the total carbon content **[00:57:18]** in the most intensively farmed soils by about **[00:57:21]** 30, 40, sometimes up to 50%. **[00:57:25]** That means these soils originally had 4.5, 5, 6% **[00:57:29]** organic carbon. Today, the quality soils **[00:57:33]** have about 2.5 to 3%. Occasionally 4%. **[00:57:37]** I think in Haná you can still find a place where we'd find 4% **[00:57:40]** or slightly over 4% organic matter in the soil. **[00:57:44]** So where we farm intensively for ourselves, **[00:57:48]** we take half and basically draw it out of the soil. **[00:57:52]** This is how it looks, the upper diagram. **[00:57:55]** Below is how it developed in the landscape, **[00:57:58]** and above you see, originally A is energy, **[00:58:01]** which stayed entirely in the ecosystem, cycling, **[00:58:04]** humans were part of the natural ecosystem, **[00:58:07]** and it stayed there again, as all their excrements, **[00:58:11]** products, and bodies remained, cycling in the system, **[00:58:15]** so everything was within the ecosystem. **[00:58:17]** Then came the Neolithic revolution, B, the red part is what **[00:58:20]** we started to appropriate. **[00:58:22]** Production decreased because we turned forest into fields, **[00:58:26]** total production, but it wasn't so dramatic, **[00:58:30]** but we were already taking a certain and growing part of it. **[00:58:34]** And today we are at C, today we have raised our **[00:58:37]** consumption to 50% or 40% **[00:58:41]** and total production has slightly increased, note, **[00:58:45]** because we are smart and have new varieties and can grow corn **[00:58:51]** much more, so total production has slightly grown, **[00:58:56]** but our share of it is 50% or 40%, that's the red part. **[00:59:02]** For some time we can still increase **[00:59:07]** what we take from the system. **[00:59:10]** But the overall production, given that **[00:59:13]** the energy flow to those who secure it **[00:59:16]** will decrease, because we consume it. **[00:59:19]** And I'll explain right away, I don't have much time, but I have to say it. **[00:59:22]** Most people say, well, if we return it, it passes **[00:59:25]** through our stomachs and cottages and I don't know what else, **[00:59:29]** but it used to be like that. There was bread crumbs, there was manure, **[00:59:33]** it all went back, but today. **[00:59:36]** Wastewater can't go back into the system. Why? **[00:59:40]** It contains estrogens, heavy metals, many other substances, **[00:59:44]** so it goes to wastewater treatment plants, **[00:59:47]** where it feeds certain bacteria, they profit from it, **[00:59:51]** they multiply, and then we have this bacterial mass **[00:59:55]** which we could put back on the fields with sludge, **[00:59:58]** but it still contains estrogens, heavy metals, **[01:00:00]** and so on, so what do we do with it? We use it for energy, so it goes to incineration plants, **[01:00:07]** it's burned, energy is produced, but I say, we produce CO2 and heat. **[01:00:13]** These are two things that are starting to cause us some problems. **[01:00:18]** And it's important to realize that today more than 50% of the human population lives in urban agglomerations. **[01:00:28]** That means today more than half of people operate within a system **[01:00:32]** where it simply passes through the human system and into the air as heat and CO2, **[01:00:39]** more and more, meaning less and less returns to nature. **[01:00:43]** Where people still live in villages, somewhere, I don't know, in Barmina or somewhere else, **[01:00:51]** there it still cycles a bit. But here, when you ask farmers, **[01:00:55]** why don't you add organic matter, they say, I know I need it, but where do I get it? **[01:00:59]** We don't have animal production, we don't have bread crumbs, **[01:01:03]** I basically don't have a source for it. **[01:01:05]** Now work is starting on other solutions, of course. **[01:01:09]** So what happens to the soil aggregate? **[01:01:11]** If we don't supply dead organic matter, all the living things there, **[01:01:15]** and now imagine the field, we keep plowing it, **[01:01:20]** and before, they plowed to get it into the system, **[01:01:24]** both to plow the organic matter inside, **[01:01:27]** and to get oxygen in, **[01:01:29]** because that speeds up decomposition processes and nutrient release. **[01:01:33]** But now we don't add organic matter, we just plow. **[01:01:37]** What happens? **[01:01:38]** We add oxygen, speed up microbial decomposition, **[01:01:43]** and the microbes don't get the dead organic matter, **[01:01:46]** or only 5 to 10%, as we said. **[01:01:48]** And they don't want to die without those. **[01:01:51]** So they say, well, what else can we do, **[01:01:54]** since there's no easy supply of material and energy, **[01:02:02]** nothing else to do, we'll activate different enzymes, **[01:02:05]** because it's tougher work, **[01:02:07]** but we'll take what we've been storing in the pantry here for a thousand years **[01:02:10]** and attack the humus, the organic matter, **[01:02:14]** that's stored in the soil, the carbon, **[01:02:17]** and start breaking down the humic substances. **[01:02:20]** To be clear, they do break down these even in healthy soil, **[01:02:25]** but what they store is always more than what they break down from those reserves, **[01:02:29]** so it keeps accumulating. **[01:02:31]** Whereas if we don't add organic matter, **[01:02:34]** this doesn't accumulate, and the little they break down **[01:02:37]** actually increases a bit, **[01:02:39]** and suddenly the organic matter starts getting consumed, **[01:02:42]** which is why half of it is gone in intensive fields, **[01:02:45]** where instead of organic matter, mainly mineral nutrients were added, **[01:02:50]** there's no energy, so they attack the organic matter **[01:02:54]** and the aggregate breaks down. **[01:02:56]** The aggregate breaks down because what holds it together **[01:03:00]** is fewer microorganisms, they're not in good shape, **[01:03:03]** they don't have time to produce much slime, **[01:03:06]** they just survive and break down organic matter. **[01:03:09]** They simplify. **[01:03:11]** This releases the individual mineral particles of the soil, **[01:03:15]** both sand and clay minerals, **[01:03:18]** and we actually support this with tillage. **[01:03:22]** So what happens now? **[01:03:24]** First, we said soil structure is like hooks that hold nutrients. **[01:03:27]** And now we've dug them up from the pantry. **[01:03:31]** There's nowhere to hang the nutrients, **[01:03:34]** or only a little on the debris here and there. **[01:03:37]** So we lose those nutrients. **[01:03:40]** Notice the graph on the right. **[01:03:42]** It shows how yields increased **[01:03:44]** when mineral fertilizers started being used, **[01:03:46]** in this case nitrogen. **[01:03:48]** And then over the years, from 1960 to 2000, **[01:03:53]** how it started to collapse with the same doses. **[01:03:57]** That's clear proof that, **[01:03:59]** even if we put the same amount of nutrients there, **[01:04:01]** they don't reach the aggregates, **[01:04:03]** because the structure isn't there. **[01:04:05]** They don't bind there and the water washes them away. **[01:04:07]** Nowadays, fertilizing is done up to four times a year in small doses, **[01:04:10]** or with drip irrigation, as you've seen, **[01:04:12]** we're very sophisticated. **[01:04:14]** Instead of natural soil structure holding it there, **[01:04:16]** we apply it drop by drop, **[01:04:18]** just what the aggregate can absorb, **[01:04:20]** because otherwise it won't stay. **[01:04:22]** But all this is energy and money, **[01:04:24]** we realize that. **[01:04:25]** So the first thing is, we lose nutrients. **[01:04:29]** The second thing is, when you have well-structured soil, **[01:04:32]** that's on the left, the yellow is organic matter, **[01:04:34]** and on the right is degraded soil, **[01:04:36]** the orange dots, the nutrients, are missing there. **[01:04:39]** Now I'm curious how this will work. **[01:04:42]** When the same amount of water falls on it, **[01:04:44]** this happens. **[01:04:47]** In the good structure, **[01:04:49]** a large amount of water is retained, **[01:04:51]** and the water flows slowly through the system. **[01:04:53]** In the bad structure, much less water is retained, **[01:04:56]** and the water rushes away. **[01:04:58]** Then you get various flash floods, **[01:05:02]** and that's soil structure. **[01:05:04]** Primarily, but not only that. **[01:05:06]** Also vegetation and so on. **[01:05:08]** So it changes the soil's capacity to hold water, **[01:05:14]** which is quite fundamental, **[01:05:16]** and at the same time it affects other ecosystems. **[01:05:18]** I talked about those humus layers. **[01:05:20]** I'll be very quick now. **[01:05:23]** What happens with those released soil particles, **[01:05:28]** those mineral substances? **[01:05:30]** They are suddenly unbound in the soil structure **[01:05:34]** And now, as it rains and water flows, **[01:05:37]** they migrate through the soil profile. **[01:05:40]** Usually, a bit downward. **[01:05:42]** They kind of sift downwards **[01:05:44]** and usually reach the boundary between topsoil and subsoil, **[01:05:49]** or possibly soil profiles elsewhere, outside the field, **[01:05:53]** and start to accumulate on that subsoil layer. **[01:05:57]** Now clay, clay minerals. **[01:06:00]** Imagine a thicker and thicker layer of clay minerals forming there **[01:06:05]** and you create something in the subsoil, I call it a Vicks-Lyvant tablecloth. **[01:06:10]** Like if you put a plastic sheet there **[01:06:13]** and then poured soil on top. What happens? **[01:06:16]** At first glance, if rainfall is well distributed **[01:06:20]** and you fertilize properly, you won't notice it. **[01:06:23]** If you probe the soil, the probe will go this deep **[01:06:26]** and then it won't go further. It's compacted. **[01:06:29]** But the most important thing is that when rain comes, **[01:06:32]** and now rains are more extreme, it saturates the top 30 cm **[01:06:37]** and then hits the Vicks-Lyvant layer. It can't go deeper, **[01:06:41]** so it actually creates a basin and water fills that basin. **[01:06:45]** And when the profile becomes more saturated, **[01:06:49]** each additional water flow starts to carry the soil away. **[01:06:52]** And you create space for water erosion. **[01:06:56]** Huge. And the thing is, water erosion existed in the past too. **[01:07:00]** But back when we studied at university, **[01:07:04]** we learned erosion is a function of slope and slope length. **[01:07:07]** Maybe some of you still calculate your practice that way. **[01:07:11]** But the reality is that today, in many places, **[01:07:16]** go to Moravia after heavy rain, **[01:07:19]** and you'll see fields that are basically flat or nearly flat. **[01:07:22]** Almost no slope, yet at the bottom you have piles of mud **[01:07:26]** that flowed into the village. Why? **[01:07:29]** Because we have a slayvant tablecloth there, and when you pour water on it, **[01:07:32]** the water doesn't form a hill. It has to go somewhere. **[01:07:35]** And it takes the soil and simply washes it away. Even a minimal slope is enough. **[01:07:39]** So the thinking that if there's no slope here, **[01:07:42]** we don't need anti-erosion measures, forget it. **[01:07:45]** This is very important. Soil structure can cause **[01:07:48]** problems even on almost flat land. And when it's completely flat, **[01:07:51]** like up there, there are places called microdepressions. **[01:07:55]** It's very slightly depressed, about 5 cm **[01:07:59]** compared to the rest of the surface. But what happens there? **[01:08:03]** What happens is that water concentrates in that spot, **[01:08:07]** which is slightly depressed, and basically there are no **[01:08:13]** soil pores for it to flow down into the profile depth, **[01:08:18]** because it is saturated, but it can rise between the **[01:08:22]** clay minerals by so-called capillarity. **[01:08:25]** Capillarity is interesting, you know it from blood tests. **[01:08:28]** You have a drop of blood and it climbs up against gravity. **[01:08:32]** So capillarity in soil causes mineral substances to dissolve **[01:08:37]** mostly from the underlying rock, **[01:08:41]** and through capillarity they reach the surface. **[01:08:44]** This usually happens in lowland soils, for example in South Moravia here. **[01:08:48]** And it’s generally warmer there, so water evaporates from the surface **[01:08:54]** and the salts dissolved in it precipitate on the soil surface. **[01:08:59]** This leads to so-called soil salinization, and when soil is saline, **[01:09:03]** nothing will ever grow on it again. **[01:09:05]** So this is an effect even on flat land that should not be forgotten. **[01:09:10]** And of course, when you destroy half of the base, **[01:09:13]** as indicated here, the food pyramid, **[01:09:15]** meaning the diversity of all species that can live in that area, **[01:09:19]** does not remain half, because it’s a pyramid. **[01:09:22]** That means if the base is halved, then **[01:09:25]** the total volume is a quarter or even less. **[01:09:29]** By the way, this somewhat explains, **[01:09:33]** when you think about it, why in intensive agricultural landscapes **[01:09:36]** not only rare and specialized species disappear, **[01:09:39]** but even the common species that tolerate the system vanish, **[01:09:42]** because the energy base **[01:09:47]** is fundamentally important. **[01:09:49]** When grain used to fall from wagons and such, **[01:09:52]** some energy remained there. **[01:09:54]** But today, when we remove it very efficiently, **[01:09:57]** there is no base left for the others. **[01:10:00]** And there is less and less of it. **[01:10:02]** Now just a summary. **[01:10:04]** This is healthy soil. **[01:10:06]** In healthy soil, bugs and bacteria **[01:10:08]** decompose and create humus, **[01:10:10]** loosen soil structure and release mineral nutrients, **[01:10:12]** retain water. **[01:10:14]** And because part of that **[01:10:16]** organic matter stays in the soil, **[01:10:18]** the aeration of this **[01:10:20]** system releases less CO2, **[01:10:22]** than what gets into the soil. **[01:10:24]** The result is that the soil **[01:10:26]** accumulates carbon. **[01:10:28]** This is exactly what we desperately need **[01:10:30]** because of climate change. **[01:10:32]** And now comes the **[01:10:34]** farmer **[01:10:36]** and starts applying mineral fertilizers **[01:10:38]** without adding enough organic matter. **[01:10:40]** What happens? The plants grow, **[01:10:42]** that's fine, **[01:10:44]** but the microbes decline, **[01:10:46]** our company, **[01:10:48]** and they look for some source to feed on, **[01:10:50]** they turn to carbon, **[01:10:52]** meaning the humus, **[01:10:54]** and start breaking it down. **[01:10:56]** What enters the system? **[01:10:58]** Organic matter thins out, **[01:11:00]** because we don't supply enough. **[01:11:02]** What breaks down increases **[01:11:04]** from the long-term reserves there. **[01:11:06]** We burn that carbon **[01:11:08]** and more CO2 starts to be released **[01:11:10]** from the soil than is stored. **[01:11:12]** And instead of being a reservoir, the soil becomes **[01:11:14]** a source of CO2. **[01:11:16]** This is happening now in the Czech Republic **[01:11:18]** on most agricultural and unfortunately **[01:11:20]** also forest soils. **[01:11:22]** In the last three years, after we cleared **[01:11:24]** the bark beetle-affected forests, **[01:11:26]** sunlight got in, **[01:11:28]** processes accelerated, **[01:11:30]** and instead, **[01:11:32]** so we could count down **[01:11:34]** for those allowances **[01:11:36]** for the forests **[01:11:38]** the payments that the Czech Republic **[01:11:40]** has to make, we are paying now. **[01:11:42]** I think it was about two to four billion, **[01:11:44]** which we will pay extra, **[01:11:46]** because the system that could **[01:11:48]** help us much more doesn't take it away from us, **[01:11:50]** if we did it smartly. **[01:11:52]** This is just a summary, **[01:11:54]** which says that when we are **[01:11:56]** in the accumulation mode, that's above the yellow disk. **[01:11:58]** There it's 50-50, **[01:12:00]** what is decomposed and what **[01:12:02]** enters the soil. When we are above it, **[01:12:04]** we are sustainable, we are fine, **[01:12:06]** we accumulate, it helps us **[01:12:08]** with climate, nutrients, water, **[01:12:10]** everything. And when we are below it, **[01:12:12]** the deficit that is missing there must be **[01:12:14]** replenished. We have to add water through irrigation, **[01:12:16]** nutrients, meaning we fertilize. **[01:12:18]** We have to protect the soil against **[01:12:20]** erosion, otherwise... etc. **[01:12:22]** Or we have to supply it with our other **[01:12:24]** different energy that humans must provide. **[01:12:26]** And that costs money **[01:12:28]** and energy, which is not simple. **[01:12:30]** The problem is that we don't know **[01:12:32]** in most ecosystems where **[01:12:34]** the yellow disk lies. **[01:12:36]** We know what is definitely wrong **[01:12:38]** and we know what is obviously right, **[01:12:40]** but where it is balanced, **[01:12:42]** meaning what we can afford **[01:12:44]** to take out of the system, **[01:12:46]** we haven't studied that well enough yet, **[01:12:48]** that's why I am talking about it. **[01:12:52]** And the last **[01:12:54]** question is, okay, so **[01:12:56]** we've understood that, for example, **[01:12:58]** returning organic matter to the system, **[01:13:00]** well, it won't work there, **[01:13:02]** if those little critters aren't there. **[01:13:04]** And if they weren't there, they mostly died off. **[01:13:06]** So how do we get them back? **[01:13:08]** I did **[01:13:10]** some experiments and found out **[01:13:12]** how they get there on their own, like by walking. **[01:13:14]** And imagine mites, they're half a **[01:13:16]** millimeter, and now imagine them working hard, **[01:13:18]** their whole life, **[01:13:20]** three or four months long, and **[01:13:22]** they never do it, but if they did, **[01:13:24]** walking their whole life in one direction, that would be **[01:13:26]** a good question, you could guess, **[01:13:28]** but we don't have time for that. **[01:13:30]** So when they **[01:13:32]** run from a predator, that's the fastest escape **[01:13:34]** they can manage, **[01:13:36]** the biggest species, about a millimeter, **[01:13:38]** can manage during that escape **[01:13:40]** up to three meters per hour. **[01:13:42]** If you look at experiments that **[01:13:46]** check in the real world **[01:13:48]** how far they get from their home, **[01:13:50]** like from a grove where they live, **[01:13:52]** into that hostile environment, **[01:13:54]** first of all, they don't even **[01:13:56]** go there while it's hostile. **[01:13:58]** Why would they? Here they have food **[01:14:00]** and everything, water, and there it's dry **[01:14:02]** and no food, so they don't go there. **[01:14:04]** If we improve it by adding organic matter **[01:14:06]** and so on, then they slowly start to move in, **[01:14:08]** when it becomes worthwhile for them, **[01:14:10]** but basically **[01:14:14]** never during that season **[01:14:16]** by their own strength and some **[01:14:18]** kind of shifting with that **[01:14:20]** organic detritus and so on **[01:14:22]** they don't go more than several dozen meters. **[01:14:24]** My observations **[01:14:26]** in our conditions show **[01:14:28]** about 20 to 25 meters, **[01:14:30]** maybe 30, so one rule **[01:14:32]** for those who will work in the landscape **[01:14:34]** and want to revive **[01:14:36]** intensive agricultural landscape, **[01:14:38]** let's ensure that no place **[01:14:40]** in any field is **[01:14:42]** further from the edge that functions **[01:14:44]** and lives than 30 meters. **[01:14:46]** So the maximum width of that plot **[01:14:48]** is 60 meters, better 50, **[01:14:50]** and so on. A very simple rule, **[01:14:52]** this can work. **[01:14:54]** We are helped by **[01:14:56]** the pests, **[01:14:58]** we want to destroy, because they **[01:15:00]** themselves don't reach those 30 meters, **[01:15:02]** but mice carry them in their fur. **[01:15:04]** Field voles **[01:15:06]** and other rodents **[01:15:08]** have bedding in their nests, **[01:15:10]** which is exactly organic detritus, **[01:15:12]** there are mites, they crawl into their fur **[01:15:14]** and as they move, **[01:15:16]** 50 meters is a normal **[01:15:18]** radius from the nest, so they **[01:15:20]** spread it under the field **[01:15:22]** in their fur, so a certain number. **[01:15:24]** Birds can do it in their feathers too, but **[01:15:26]** there are very few of them, and the wind can do it too, **[01:15:28]** and this is the absolute minimum. **[01:15:30]** I found a mite that lives exclusively **[01:15:32]** in alpine conditions above the tree line **[01:15:34]** in the East Slovak Lowland **[01:15:36]** near Trebišov and Žil. **[01:15:38]** That means it had to get there **[01:15:40]** with the wind and the nearest **[01:15:42]** alpine treeless areas are about **[01:15:44]** 100 kilometers away, either Kráľova hoľa **[01:15:46]** or the Ukrainian Carpathians, **[01:15:48]** one of those depending on the wind. **[01:15:50]** That means they can spread this way too, **[01:15:52]** but it takes decades, **[01:15:54]** hundreds of years before something settles, **[01:15:56]** so we have to secure **[01:15:58]** the first two options. **[01:16:00]** And that means if the large field **[01:16:02]** is 2x2 kilometers, **[01:16:04]** then during the season, when we again **[01:16:06]** destroy it at the end, **[01:16:08]** they can manage 50 meters **[01:16:10]** around the edges, but never really get **[01:16:12]** into the middle. **[01:16:14]** That means if we divide the landscape so that **[01:16:16]** the width is no more than **[01:16:18]** 50-60 meters, **[01:16:20]** we have a much better chance to revive it, **[01:16:22]** not saying ideally, **[01:16:24]** that the soil will work better. **[01:16:26]** And that means it won't just help **[01:16:28]** the soil fauna, **[01:16:30]** of course it helps pollinators, **[01:16:32]** other biodiversity like birds, butterflies, **[01:16:34]** etc. above ground. **[01:16:36]** But I just say it also helps the soil organisms **[01:16:38]** and that significantly, considering the distances. **[01:16:40]** And here are some options **[01:16:42]** of what we can do, but I'll leave that for discussion. **[01:16:44]** And the last picture is about **[01:16:46]** how long it will take, **[01:16:48]** if we do it right, **[01:16:50]** we messed up, **[01:16:52]** we get into some **[01:16:54]** acceptable forms. **[01:16:56]** And the longest experiments are done **[01:16:58]** at Rothamsted, **[01:17:00]** that's in Britain, where for about 170 years **[01:17:02]** they have been testing various fertilizations **[01:17:04]** and different soil care systems. **[01:17:06]** And basically, they found that **[01:17:08]** depending on how long we've been damaging it, **[01:17:10]** we need the same amount of time, **[01:17:12]** if we use the most effective method, **[01:17:14]** which is intensive addition **[01:17:16]** of organic matter, and it doesn't have to be just manure, **[01:17:18]** it can be cover crops, **[01:17:20]** or other options, **[01:17:22]** compost, and so on, **[01:17:24]** it comes out roughly the same. **[01:17:26]** Which unfortunately for today's farmer **[01:17:28]** is not a big motivation. **[01:17:30]** If I tell him, now you'll do everything right, **[01:17:32]** it will cost you something, **[01:17:34]** more effort, more work, **[01:17:36]** and in 70 years it will be fine, **[01:17:38]** he's not very eager to do it. **[01:17:40]** But the good news is, **[01:17:42]** notice this curve **[01:17:44]** the label Manure addition. **[01:17:46]** The curve isn't dipping like this, **[01:17:48]** but is asymptotic instead. **[01:17:50]** That means, in the first years, **[01:17:52]** it improves **[01:17:54]** dramatically and fastest. **[01:17:56]** That's our hope. That's what it comes down to. **[01:17:58]** That means, **[01:18:00]** in the first five to ten years, **[01:18:02]** we can significantly improve **[01:18:04]** the situation in the field, and then it will take **[01:18:06]** a long time to reach the original values. **[01:18:08]** But we can get to **[01:18:10]** 70-80%, and that completely **[01:18:12]** fundamentally changes the capability **[01:18:14]** for that system to work, so it makes sense. **[01:18:16]** We need to switch **[01:18:18]** to regenerative agriculture, **[01:18:20]** hold on for five years, or subsidize it **[01:18:22]** or support it, and then **[01:18:24]** the systems can start to work **[01:18:26]** acceptably, for example by **[01:18:28]** storing carbon instead of **[01:18:30]** releasing it. And I think **[01:18:32]** I'll end here with the call **[01:18:34]** feed the soil with organic matter and care for **[01:18:36]** the landscape, then everything will work **[01:18:38]** and thank you for your attention. **[01:18:40]** Thank you very much **[01:18:42]** for the lecture. **[01:18:44]** Whenever I listen to you, **[01:18:46]** I think that if **[01:18:48]** teachers spoke like this **[01:18:50]** in elementary schools, then simply **[01:18:52]** I think we wouldn't have any problem at all, **[01:18:54]** because I think everyone would understand. **[01:18:56]** Still, I would like to return **[01:18:58]** to that slide which **[01:19:00]** we can create. **[01:19:02]** We can create **[01:19:04]** services that **[01:19:06]** we can create. **[01:19:08]** Still, I would like to return to that slide, **[01:19:10]** where you have what I can do **[01:19:12]** as a state, farmer, and individual, **[01:19:14]** and let's calmly **[01:19:16]** go through it, because I feel that some questions **[01:19:18]** are heading in this direction. **[01:19:20]** Basically, **[01:19:22]** the important thing is to stop **[01:19:24]** ignoring the soil as such. **[01:19:26]** In agricultural systems, **[01:19:28]** we have focused heavily **[01:19:30]** and it makes sense, I don't criticize it, **[01:19:32]** because feeding humanity, **[01:19:34]** which is still growing, is crucial. **[01:19:38]** How to maximize production. **[01:19:40]** And it seemed that it all **[01:19:42]** worked incredibly well, like when **[01:19:44]** industrial fertilizers started working, **[01:19:46]** suddenly it was dramatic, **[01:19:48]** the production curve was flat for decades, **[01:19:50]** like this, and somehow around **[01:19:52]** 1945, **[01:19:54]** 58, 50, **[01:19:56]** it completely shifted and started to grow like this. **[01:19:58]** We said, we've solved it, but after a few decades we began to realize **[01:20:00]** that we have to fertilize more and more, we have more problems, more erosion, **[01:20:05]** and we found out that the product of the field is not just the biomass and our food, **[01:20:10]** but also the soil structure and the soil itself. **[01:20:17]** And that is what we have been doing until recently. So, in one sentence, I would say, **[01:20:22]** let's take this as a goal, to cultivate healthy soil, besides the plants, **[01:20:26]** and then some other things will follow. We need legislation for this, **[01:20:31]** today some things can't be done because they are illegal, **[01:20:35]** today some things are not profitable because when you subsidize agricultural production, **[01:20:40]** meaning the crops, there is no incentive to try to cultivate the soil, **[01:20:48]** because the more I milk it, the lower my costs, and I get subsidies and yields, **[01:20:54]** so of course there are farmers who think this way, **[01:20:59]** that in ten years there will be nothing left. In the Vyškov region, there are fields, **[01:21:04]** I filmed them, where on once fertile soils today **[01:21:08]** it is not even worth sowing, farmers leave them bare, they just let it graze. **[01:21:13]** This is not some made-up threat, this is a very real thing. **[01:21:19]** That's one thing. As a farmer, I have to make sure to minimize inputs **[01:21:24]** that worsen soil structure and help those that improve it. **[01:21:29]** What I would say is ideal, ideal, not everyone can or is able to do it. **[01:21:33]** No-till, ensuring the soil is always covered with some plants, **[01:21:37]** meaning after crops, between crops, and if those cover crops are also crops, **[01:21:42]** as diverse as possible, because we haven't yet talked about root exudates, **[01:21:47]** which feed the bacteria, even if we don't add manure, **[01:21:51]** they are layered, first they have different quality **[01:21:55]** and they are layered over time depending on the plant species. **[01:21:59]** So when I have a five-species or seven-species or ten-species mix **[01:22:03]** between crops, it's like flowering for bees. **[01:22:07]** It covers a much longer season than if I have just one species. **[01:22:14]** So actually, I have a shorter interval. **[01:22:16]** And of course, we can all contribute, first of all, **[01:22:20]** by thinking about how organic matter can even return. **[01:22:24]** There are two things here. One is, please note, in Europe, **[01:22:28]** 35 to 40% of the food produced is not consumed. **[01:22:32]** We pour all that money into it, produce food, **[01:22:36]** and then it just gets thrown away. **[01:22:40]** Sometimes it can't even be used as fertilizer, **[01:22:43]** because it's in packaging, and the packaging is just too difficult **[01:22:46]** to tear open, like Mars bars or something. **[01:22:49]** I probably shouldn't name brands. **[01:22:51]** Someone would have to sit and tear open each one, **[01:22:55]** to take it out so it could be ground up **[01:22:58]** and spread on the fields. **[01:23:00]** Otherwise, you mash it in a machine and spread it on the fields **[01:23:05]** So we have a big problem with how to at least return what isn't consumed **[01:23:08]** back into the system. **[01:23:10]** It means we should think about how much we buy versus how much we need. **[01:23:12]** That's important. **[01:23:15]** And then, of course, when I know this, **[01:23:16]** I can adjust my behavior accordingly, **[01:23:19]** to avoid creating the problem and instead reduce it. **[01:23:21]** Marek is asking. **[01:23:24]** So let's answer. **[01:23:26]** What would happen if I bought a field with the intention **[01:23:28]** of turning it into a hlouka forest? **[01:23:30]** Would natural regeneration occur, **[01:23:32]** and can we estimate how long it would take? **[01:23:35]** Is it ten years? **[01:23:37]** Yes. If you just create a hlouka there **[01:23:39]** and don't help it, **[01:23:42]** it won't be there in ten years. **[01:23:44]** Today, we have very good experience. **[01:23:46]** I refer to colleagues **[01:23:48]** for example in the protected landscape area Bílé Karpaty, **[01:23:50]** where bělokarpatské hlouky are being restored. **[01:23:53]** And they tried just leaving it alone. **[01:23:55]** They abandoned the field and left it be. **[01:24:00]** Or it’s helped by sowing **[01:24:02]** local grass and flower mixes, etc. **[01:24:05]** And it makes a huge difference. **[01:24:07]** If only couch grasses fly in there **[01:24:09]** and some weeds or fast aggressive species, **[01:24:14]** it takes a very long time **[01:24:16]** to get to that meadow-like state. **[01:24:18]** If I help a bit, **[01:24:19]** the root system and everything **[01:24:21]** starts to look different in a shorter time. **[01:24:23]** But we’re still talking about decades. **[01:24:26]** The forest helps faster, **[01:24:28]** but making a forest isn’t that simple, **[01:24:31]** because forest species have to get there somehow. **[01:24:34]** And you need some connection somewhere **[01:24:36]** to a grove or something with trees. **[01:24:39]** You can’t just plant a forest **[01:24:42]** in the middle of a field under Pálava, **[01:24:44]** and hope it will be a quality forest in ten years. **[01:24:49]** Lukáš, probably Horčička, **[01:24:51]** greetings to Service Ball, **[01:24:52]** asks what I think about the Czech national sport of mushroom picking. **[01:24:56]** Isn’t it nowadays to the extent **[01:24:58]** that it damages the ecosystem? **[01:25:01]** I don’t think that’s the problem. **[01:25:05]** It’s more that **[01:25:08]** too many people drive cars into the forest **[01:25:11]** and trample and make a mess, **[01:25:13]** and that probably bothers the environment. **[01:25:15]** But picking mushrooms, **[01:25:17]** in the end, is just collecting the fruiting bodies. **[01:25:19]** The mycelium stays under the mushroom, **[01:25:21]** and that’s what matters. **[01:25:23]** So I wouldn’t be afraid of mushroom picking. **[01:25:25]** On the other hand, I know cases. **[01:25:28]** Italians are big mushroom pickers, **[01:25:30]** you know Italian gastronomy. **[01:25:33]** And Austrian politicians came to me **[01:25:36]** wanting to ban Italians **[01:25:38]** from picking mushrooms in their country, **[01:25:40]** because they completely pick it clean. **[01:25:42]** But in Europe, you can't impose a ban based on nationality, **[01:25:44]** so we dealt with **[01:25:46]** how to make sure something remains there at all **[01:25:48]** for the locals. **[01:25:50]** And that's a topic for another lecture. **[01:25:52]** But sometimes it can be picked clean. **[01:25:54]** Packaging is becoming popular, **[01:25:56]** building materials made from mycelium, **[01:25:58]** from fungal mycelium. Are there any disadvantages **[01:26:00]** to such products? How do you see the future **[01:26:02]** of such applications? **[01:26:04]** I don't know of any disadvantages. **[01:26:06]** If there's no chemicals involved, **[01:26:08]** I think it's quite smart, **[01:26:10]** just making something that the soil can then consume. **[01:26:12]** But it's important to realize that mushrooms themselves, **[01:26:14]** in their cell walls, **[01:26:16]** contain chitin. **[01:26:18]** It's the same as beetles. **[01:26:20]** It's not easily decomposable. **[01:26:22]** It is decomposable. **[01:26:24]** There are fungi that can break it down, **[01:26:26]** but only a certain amount. **[01:26:28]** Not every fungus can do it. **[01:26:30]** I got to the point here **[01:26:32]** of wondering **[01:26:34]** whether **[01:26:36]** traditional agriculture **[01:26:38]** can cover **[01:26:40]** the global demand, **[01:26:42]** which keeps growing. **[01:26:44]** That's a big question. **[01:26:46]** I think **[01:26:48]** it can, **[01:26:50]** comma, but. **[01:26:52]** But it depends on several things. **[01:26:54]** Look at what our farmers protest against the most today. **[01:26:56]** The first thing is, **[01:27:00]** that they are economically in the red. **[01:27:02]** If we look a little deeper, **[01:27:04]** we can't sell our production. **[01:27:06]** If we look even deeper, **[01:27:08]** why can't we sell the production? **[01:27:10]** When we were hungry, we would sell it. **[01:27:12]** But now we have an excess. **[01:27:14]** We produce huge surpluses **[01:27:16]** and our chance is **[01:27:18]** to push it somewhere **[01:27:20]** where they don't have enough. **[01:27:22]** Or we send it to Africa or Asia **[01:27:24]** or somewhere in the developing world. **[01:27:26]** But because it works like this, **[01:27:28]** we have some funds **[01:27:30]** that buy it from the farmers **[01:27:32]** and then send it as development aid, **[01:27:34]** basically for free, **[01:27:36]** so besides the fact that some powerful people **[01:27:38]** appropriate it and no one gets it, **[01:27:40]** let's put that aside, **[01:27:42]** but basically they receive **[01:27:44]** our overproduction. **[01:27:46]** It was already paid for from those funds **[01:27:48]** and some reserve funds, **[01:27:50]** and they get the products **[01:27:52]** at a price at which they can't **[01:27:54]** compete with their own production. **[01:27:56]** So paradoxically, **[01:27:58]** we cause with this aid **[01:28:00]** that it doesn't pay for them **[01:28:02]** to start growing **[01:28:04]** their own production more intensively, **[01:28:06]** because they go bankrupt. **[01:28:08]** And it's not simple **[01:28:10]** as a way out, **[01:28:12]** to say we won't give it to them, **[01:28:14]** that's not good either, when we have overproduction, **[01:28:16]** which we actually give them, **[01:28:18]** so they will never get the fishing rod **[01:28:20]** and we keep feeding them those fish. **[01:28:22]** So it really is **[01:28:24]** a very complex structural problem, **[01:28:26]** but generally, **[01:28:28]** if we consider that the world population **[01:28:30]** throws away about 35% **[01:28:32]** of produced food, **[01:28:34]** plus other statistics, **[01:28:36]** which have been saying for ten years now, **[01:28:38]** that the percentage of obese people on Earth **[01:28:40]** is higher than **[01:28:42]** the percentage of hungry people, **[01:28:44]** then we probably have more of a problem **[01:28:46]** with distribution than with food production. **[01:28:50]** I'm thinking, **[01:28:52]** we had a discussion with Jozef Dvořáček **[01:28:54]** from Zonentor, a person **[01:28:56]** I really like and also greetings to Zonentor, **[01:28:58]** where many people are watching us, **[01:29:00]** so we actually **[01:29:02]** discussed such **[01:29:04]** innovations **[01:29:06]** in agriculture, those new greenhouses, **[01:29:08]** hydroponics and so on, **[01:29:10]** versus agriculture **[01:29:12]** like vertical farms and these things. **[01:29:14]** I'm actually wondering, **[01:29:16]** whether to open this up now in the last minute, **[01:29:18]** or if it could serve as a teaser **[01:29:20]** for a discussion we will have together later. What do you think? **[01:29:22]** I would definitely like to come and discuss it in one sentence, **[01:29:24]** and just say, let's try to realize, **[01:29:26]** humans are incredibly smart **[01:29:28]** creatures and can invent amazing things. **[01:29:30]** But those amazing things, **[01:29:32]** if we focused **[01:29:34]** on solving causes **[01:29:36]** and not just effects, **[01:29:38]** that would be great. **[01:29:42]** But we usually let the mess happen **[01:29:44]** and then we solve the mess **[01:29:46]** with innovation. **[01:29:48]** Let's try to prevent the mess **[01:29:50]** with innovation instead of that. **[01:29:52]** For example, precision agriculture. **[01:29:54]** We can use precision agriculture **[01:29:56]** through regenerative agriculture **[01:29:58]** or by fixing what **[01:30:00]** intensive farming causes. **[01:30:02]** And now you can't say that **[01:30:04]** precision agriculture is bad. **[01:30:09]** On the contrary, it's amazing. **[01:30:11]** But the point is whether I use it to **[01:30:13]** restart the soil, **[01:30:15]** or I use it so that **[01:30:17]** I just leave it in a terrible state **[01:30:19]** and deal with the consequences. **[01:30:21]** So I would leave this thought in your minds, **[01:30:23]** to look for solutions to causes, **[01:30:25]** not consequences. **[01:30:27]** So thank you very much for the great talk. **[01:30:29]** Thanks again. **[01:30:31]** Thank you. **[01:30:33]** Thank you. **[01:30:40]** It was an amazing lecture. **[01:30:43]** We would appreciate any feedback **[01:30:45]** you give us. **[01:30:47]** I think there are already **[01:30:49]** five stars coming in. **[01:30:51]** Yes, it was valuable, **[01:30:53]** as usual. **[01:30:55]** If you could add **[01:30:57]** just one word that came to mind **[01:30:59]** in connection with the lecture, **[01:31:01]** or that somehow became clear to you, **[01:31:03]** we would be very grateful. **[01:31:05]** So thanks for the rating. **[01:31:07]** And so. **[01:31:09]** We kind of **[01:31:11]** always **[01:31:13]** we don't want to end with just that inspiration. **[01:31:15]** It's good when something **[01:31:17]** sticks with us and what **[01:31:19]** and how it could stick with us **[01:31:21]** better and more effectively, from the perspective of education and learning, **[01:31:23]** is to talk about it with someone. **[01:31:25]** So if you are now at your **[01:31:27]** company, or **[01:31:29]** just looking at it with someone, **[01:31:31]** definitely make a little round, **[01:31:33]** some reflection where you at least say, **[01:31:35]** what new things you learned, what you didn't know, **[01:31:37]** what surprised you, or what **[01:31:39]** you disagree with. This is also good. **[01:31:41]** We **[01:31:43]** do this round **[01:31:45]** regularly. We call it **[01:31:47]** Brain Awareness Digestive. **[01:31:49]** And together with Ladislav **[01:31:51]** I am really looking forward to **[01:31:53]** April 26th from 8:00 in the morning. **[01:31:55]** Sorry, it won't be at 8:00, **[01:31:57]** it will be at 14:00. That changed, **[01:31:59]** it will be at 2 PM. **[01:32:01]** And I will definitely invite **[01:32:03]** Vojta Malina from Cleverfarm **[01:32:05]** about precision agriculture. I'll try to invite **[01:32:07]** Josef Dvořáček from the company **[01:32:09]** Zonentor, so we have diverse discussions. **[01:32:11]** Ondraž Přiběra and Sonia Onášová will also come. **[01:32:13]** So I think it will be worth it. **[01:32:15]** So if you want, follow us, whether **[01:32:17]** or just follow Red Button Edu. **[01:32:21]** There are many projects under **[01:32:23]** the Red Button umbrella. **[01:32:25]** For example, Book of the Month. **[01:32:27]** So here are the books **[01:32:29]** for March and April. **[01:32:33]** So, as I said, **[01:32:35]** we do a lot. **[01:32:37]** For example, in the sustainability community, **[01:32:39]** where experts from various companies meet **[01:32:41]** and discuss, work, and share **[01:32:43]** best practices, which **[01:32:45]** incidentally will probably be part of the digest as well. **[01:32:47]** And, there's no choice but **[01:32:49]** to take it quickly, in May **[01:32:51]** there will be **[01:32:53]** a guest at Brain and Breakfast, Květa. **[01:32:55]** Květa Mostra. **[01:32:57]** For those who don't know Květa, **[01:32:59]** I would say she is **[01:33:01]** probably one of the biggest entrepreneurs, **[01:33:03]** if not the biggest in the Czech Republic, **[01:33:05]** she is called the first lady **[01:33:07]** of the startup scene. **[01:33:09]** Květa will share her story with us, **[01:33:11]** and the title of the breakfast is **[01:33:13]** How to Build a Dream. **[01:33:15]** So if you're interested **[01:33:17]** in how to build a company, company culture, **[01:33:19]** roles, leadership, and all **[01:33:21]** these kinds of things, **[01:33:23]** then on May 23rd, **[01:33:25]** from 8:30, I look forward **[01:33:27]** to seeing you. Take care, **[01:33:29]** thanks. One more chance to say a sentence? **[01:33:31]** Sure. Two, first of all, **[01:33:33]** it's really sharp, it's worth it. **[01:33:35]** But what I wanted to say is, if anyone is interested **[01:33:37]** in more, there are two films on YouTube that I **[01:33:39]** made with friends about this topic. **[01:33:41]** One is called **[01:33:43]** Geoderma Living Beach **[01:33:53]** the planet Earth and the second one is called **[01:33:55]** Let me live. **[01:33:57]** Both are free and available **[01:33:59]** in English and Czech in various **[01:34:01]** versions, so they are **[01:34:03]** 26-minute documentaries, if **[01:34:05]** you are interested. Great, we will definitely provide **[01:34:07]** them as materials. **[01:34:09]** So once again, thanks, take care, **[01:34:11]** have a nice day, goodbye and bye. **[01:34:13]** Thank you.