00:04Desert. Swamp. Moor. Forest. Nature offers a dazzling array of landscapes.
00:17To understand where this wealth of diversity comes from,
00:21we must delve a few meters underground into what we commonly call the soil.
00:29We are just beginning to discover that plants form partnerships and create complex unions.
00:37Welcome to this subtle, surprising and secret world.
01:02Let us begin our journey at the threshold where the realms of air and earth meet, on the surface of
01:09the ground.
01:15Here, in this border zone, nature recycles what it has produced.
01:21Leaves from trees and plant debris form what we call litter.
01:25In other words, the thin layer of organic detritus that covers the ground.
01:35Jean-Francois Pange is a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
01:41As an expert in soil life, when he walks through the forest, he sees things an ordinary hiker would barely
01:48notice.
01:50For a leaf to decompose, it needs enough time for microorganisms to inhabit and use it,
01:58and for animals to transform it. That can take between one and ten years or more,
02:05depending on how rich the soil is and also on the climate.
02:09And that can be studied in space.
02:09And that's the way the climate.
02:11How was that?
Comments