About the Composition of Forest Soil
Forests are the lungs of our earth. In doing so, they reduce the consequences of global warming. They produce oxygen by binding carbon dioxide and using sunlight to produce o2. The most important source of life for our trees is the forest floor.
The forest floor is a complex habitat that can be roughly divided into a layer of decomposting organisms and the underlying humus layer.
In detail, the structure of the microhabitats in forest soil is more complex and consists of island-like distributed areas that can be described as ephemeral habitats, i.e. that only exist temporarily. An example of this is rotting dead wood. For scientific and documentary reasons I chose an old and hollow tree stump in a Berlin park that is filled with forest substrate that varies depending on the season. In autumn there are often clusters of acorns that come from neighboring oak trees.
In winter and spring, however, the tree stump is usually filled primarily with fallen and decomposing leaves. This goes hand in hand with different living organism communities. Organisms that typically always occur are shown as examples in this video. What is not shown and will be discussed in another video are phoretic organisms such as nematodes and especially certain mites, such as Astigmata mites. I have been sampling from this tree stump regularly at different times for several years and can always cultivate at least two different species of Histiostomatidae (Astigmata, Acariformes) from these samples. A species of the Histiostoma feroniarum group and a species of the Histiostoma piceae group. But this will be discussed in more detail on another occasion.
© Stefan F. Wirth, Berlin 2024
Photography, videography and sampling on December 22, 2023,
day of the winter solstice
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