Soil’s Role in Earth’s Carbon Cycle | The Future of Nature

Healthy soil is a vast carbon sink. Soil’s superpower comes from the biodiversity of life it hosts and the deep networking power of its fungi.

In these clips, scientists use audio and visual instruments to look into and listen to life in the soil and monitor gas exchanges between plants and soils. These multisensory methods help experts accurately map and measure how carbon is stored by healthy soils. They use these data to improve models and predict changes in Earth’s carbon cycle.

Viewing and discussion questions are provided. Optional extension activities include instructions for a soil experiment, a career exploration activity, and a flipbook animation project.

About the Author

Kathy Biernat is an award-winning educator with over 20 years of teaching middle school students, believing “hands on=minds on.” She has a bachelor of science degree from Marquette and a master of science degree from University of North Texas. While she left full time teaching to pursue curriculum design work, she couldn’t stay away from the classroom entirely and can still be found running science labs at Saint Alphonsus in Greendale, WI.