![]() Handelsman, I could’ve guessed that soil was important for food production, but I’d never really thought about how important it could be for water quality too - but that makes a lot of sense. So there are several environmental and health issues that interface very directly with soil loss.įreida: Before we talked to Dr. ![]() If we don't have topsoil with all the nutrients and organisms that are acting on the water as it percolates through, then we're not going to have clean water. And that's because of the action of the soil. And by the time it gets to our groundwater, it tends to be a lot cleaner. And the other one is water quality, generally drinking water quality and all kinds of water quality because soil is the biggest filter for water on Earth and we depend on the soil to process water that is contaminated at the surface. And that's probably the single most direct effect of losing soil, is that we lose our capacity to produce food because ninety five percent of our food supply comes directly or indirectly from crops. Jo Handelsman: Well, soil is something that we depend on for first and foremost, probably most people would think of food production. She also served for three years as the associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama.ĭr. Handelsman is the director for the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. And who better to ask than the pioneer in microbial sciences who sparked our interest initially, Dr. In this three episode miniseries, we’ll be addressing the soil crisis, the science of soil and some exciting scientific developments that may help ameliorate this crisis.įreida Blostein: So first, let's talk a little bit about why soil is important and what's going wrong. ![]() And in many areas that will be it already is a crisis.Įmily Crossette: And that inspired this podcast series. Jo Handelsman: The average rate of soil erosion across agricultural land is about 10 times the rate at which it produced, which doesn't give us very long for having productive agricultural land. Jo Handelsman, who broke some earth shattering news for us.ĭr. So here's your first clue.The species name of this microbe means waxy in Latin and refers to the appearance of its colonies.Įmily Crossettee: It was actually at an ITiMs's retreat where we met Dr. Nicholas Medina: While I study interactions between microbial communities, invertebrate activity and soil structure as an ecologist.įreida Blostein: And I'm an epidemiologist studying how commensal microbes of different body sites, like the oral microbiome, can influence human health and disease.įreida Blostein : So one thing we wanted to do in this podcast was play this kind of fun microbial game where we'll give you hints about a specific microbial species or genus throughout the podcast, and you can try and guess what it is before the end of the episode. I'm an environmental engineer and I study microbes in land applied manure and biosolids, which are resources which are recovered through waste treatment. Nicholas Medina: ITiMS is a program funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and is dedicated to training students to investigate microbial sciences, using mathematical modeling, population sciences and laboratory techniques.Įmily Crossette: So Freida, Nicholas and I all study microbes and microbial communities, although we each do so in different systems and fields. Other listening options Back to Podcasts Episode 2 -> Transcriptįreida Blostein: Hi, my name is Freida Blostein, and I'm here with my co-hosts, Emily Crossette and Nicholas Medina, we're all doctoral students and fellows in the Integrated Training and Microbial Systems or ITiMS program at the University of Michigan. Guest: Jo Handelsman LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE We discuss how important soil is for our planet, touching on climate change, soil erosion and the Dust Bowl.Ĭo-hosts: Emily Crossette and Nicholas Medina Jo Handelsman, Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and former science advisor to President Obama. In this episode, epidemiology PhD student Freida orients us to the ongoing soil crisis and introduces our guest, Dr.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |