No soil food web works without a well-developed clay/humuscomplex
A well-developed clay/humuscomplex is crucial for the organic carbon cycle to be active
"Clay/humus complex" is the name given to a thin layer of carbon compounds around soil particles. It is the carbon-rich soil infrastructure that not only keeps the 'skeleton' of mineral particles together, but also gives a soil its fertility and friability. The
clay/humuscomplex acts very much like the connective tissues and joints that hold a human skeleton together.
When properly maintained by soil micro organisms, the
clay/humuscomplex enables the soil to hold water and nutrients like a super sponge. It holds the key to a robust soil ecosystem that can adequately withstand climate changes, through its buffering of organic carbon, water, nutrients and heat!
In addition, the clay/humuscomplex also performs an infrastructural function in the soil, keeping spaces open for enough oxygen and water to ENTER into the soil, and for accommodation of an easier root penetration.
By providing
- NUTRIENT AND WATER STORAGE for plant growth and
- a HOME for aerobic soil organisms to perform in the soil food web,
the clay/humuscomplex is by its nature the medium essential to accommodate microbial soil life for
- closing the organic carbon cycle and therefore
- providing the conditions for the production of wholesome food crops
.
Reviving soil life is an extremely effective, simple and efficient way of building up organic carbon stocks (humus) in the soil, but that
cannot happen without a clay/humuscomplex in good condition, as an indispensable part of the
soil food web. For a bonus, a thriving soil food web improves soil water storage capacity (porosity) by a ten to hundredfold, which will stop drought problems for free! The increases in carbon stocks produced by soil microbes may be as high as 1% per year,
provided that conditions for establishment of aerobic soil life are favourable
and the supply of trace elements is not hampered by
toxic compounds such as f.i.
- neonics seed coatings,
- glyphosate cocktails and
- glyphosate metabolites as toxic as AMPA (Amino Methyl Phosphonic Acid).
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