Regen AgTek

California’s escalating wildfires highlight a deeper issue: the breakdown of natural water cycles due to degraded soils and disrupted ecosystems. Healthy soils, rich in organic carbon, act as sponges, storing water and supporting plant life. Through evapotranspiration, plants release water vapor into the atmosphere, helping to form clouds and generate local rainfall. However, industrial agriculture has severely depleted organic carbon in soils, reducing their water-holding capacity and disrupting this vital cycle. The loss of soil health in California has created a feedback loop of drought and fire. Poor land management and overuse of chemical inputs have dried out soils, leaving landscapes more prone to ignition. Fires, in turn, worsen soil degradation, further reducing the land’s ability to hold moisture and sustain vegetation. Without intervention, these cycles will only intensify, threatening ecosystems, agriculture, and communities. Regenerative agricultural practices offer a path forward, restoring the ability of soils to hold water and support plant life. These practices enhance microbial diversity and strengthen the soil-plant-atmosphere connection, allowing landscapes to absorb water, release moisture, and “plant the rain.” By repairing local water cycles, regenerative agriculture can reduce fire risk, replenish rainfall, and create more resilient ecosystems. California’s solution lies beneath its feet. Restoring soils and adopting regenerative practices can mitigate wildfire risks while addressing water scarcity and climate impacts. By working with natural systems, we can transform degraded lands into thriving, moisture-rich ecosystems, breaking the cycle of drought and fire. The time to act is now—for the health of our land, water, and future. https://lnkd.in/gmzjtFCF

Why is it important to have living roots? If we don't have living roots, we miss out on the biggest opportunity to build soil organic matter. The carbon that comes through the liquid carbon pathway is 5-30x more effective at building organic matter than any other type of carbon. Working with the hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi, liquid carbon is channeled into soil aggregates which is then stabilized by the process of humification. As Dr. Christine Jones says, we could add all of the carbon we want above ground in the form of residue or mulch but when it comes to building OM deep in the soil profile, nothing replaces the power of liquid carbon from living roots. This is a great reminder of why we should try to maximize the days of living roots growing in the soil. And be on the lookout for the full recording of the Soil as Living System workshop on our YouTube channel soon! #SoilHealth #RegenerativeAgriculture #CoverCrops

🤔What is the best predictor of nutrient-dense food? Is it local? Organic? Biodynamic? No-till? Nospray? ❌Nope. Garden vs. farmers market vs. supermarket? Region? ❌Nuh-uh. Irrigated? Hydroponic? How about total soil carbon? Soil S, P, Ca, Mg, K, or B? Base saturation? ❌Nay. According to Dan Kittredge, founder of The Bionutrient Institute in a recent conversation with Koen van Seijen on Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food, the bionutrient quality of crops had no connection to those factors. Indeed, some organic was in the top 20%, but some was in the bottom 20%. So too for the others. In terms of minerals, antioxidants, and polyphenols, only one factor consistently tracked with bionutrient density: ✅The amount of living creatures breathing in the soil! Critters, living, breathing, and cycling nutrients in soil are the best predictor of how much nutrient goodness will end up in the crop growing in it, the best predictor of whether you need to eat one grape or 15 to get the same amount of antioxidants. And, since we’ve been discussing methods for assessing the #soil #microbiome, how did Dan measure this? They used what is probably the simplest, cheapest indicator of the size and activity of the soil microbiome: respiration, or simply the amount of CO2 released by the soil. There are different methods for measuring CO2 flux. Dan’s lab employs the common 24-hour CO2 burst method, which involves taking a weighed, sieved, dry sample of soil, wetting it to it’s max holding capacity, closing it in a jar, and then measuring the CO2 concentration in the jar after 24 hours, typically using an infrared gas analyzer Solvita has also produced an at home test which employs the use of a small paddle that changes color predictably in the presence of increasing CO2 concentrations. These tests are only $20-$25, depending on the provider, but have drawbacks. For instance, CO2 diffusion will decrease as the CO2 concentration in the gas builds up. I have also heard Dr. Elaine Ingham express concern about 1) how the disturbance involved in sampling, transport, and sieving may alter the microbiome; and 2) how sealing the jar prevents oxygen influx, leading highly active microbiomes to run out of oxygen quickly, leading to unrepresentative measurements. Some researchers buy much more expensive tools like the LI-COR 8100, which places a doom directly onto the soil and measures CO2 flux in the field on undisturbed soil, with software tools in place to account for some of the downsides noted above. Unlike microscopy, PLFA, DNA-sequencing, protein analysis and the like, respiration can’t give us any info about species or about particular functions. Yet it is far from useless. It tells us how much microbial activity is going on, and turns out to be an S-tier predictor of #NutrientDensity! Who knew?

Dynamic colonization of roots by symbiotic fungi 🔬🌱 📚 During the formation of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) symbiosis, the fungal partner develops a network of hyphae that penetrates the soil and colonizes plant roots, growing both between and within the root cells. 🔎 Within the root cortical cells, AM fungal hyphae create specialized structures for nutrient exchange, known as tree-like arbuscules and knot-like coils. 🦠 AM fungi, as obligate biotrophs, rely on their plant hosts for sourcing essential lipids and sugars. 🔄 In return, they provide the plant with water and mineral nutrients collected from areas beyond the reach of the plant's roots. Video: timelapse of arbuscule development in Nicotiana benthamiana (credits: Alex Guyon; confocal z-stacks imaged non-invasively using Mcgaley et al. 2024 AMSlide setup). #soil #microbiome #agriculture