10. Rewilding Soil - Michael Kennard, soil ecologist and founder of Compost Club

Michael Kennard, soil ecologist and founder of Compost Club, explores what a rewilded soil looks like and why the life beneath our feet underpins the whole ecosystem: soil as the most diverse ecosystem on the planet and “nature’s operating system”; building a circular, regenerative enterprise from food waste; the soil food web and how plants feed microbes through root exudates in return for nutrients; how soil biology builds structure, retains water and stores carbon; the fungal-to-bacterial ratio and its role in succession, from pioneer “weeds” to old-growth forest; fungal-dominant composting with the Johnson-Su bioreactor; and why living compost differs from commercial “multi-purpose” compost. MATERIALS Recap of the call, with further resources: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eu96... Michael's slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_w1... ABOUT THE SPEAKER Michael Kennard:   / michael-kennard-0206a520b   Compost Club: https://www.compostclub.online Furnace Brook: https://www.furnacebrook.org.uk/ TAKE PART CURIOSOIL soil literacy survey (Wageningen University, 10–15 minutes): https://wur.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/for... FURTHER READING Anthony, Bender & van der Heijden (2023), Enumerating soil biodiversity, PNAS: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2304663120 Rosier et al. (2024), Validation of low-cost reflectometer to identify phytochemical accumulation in food crops, Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... Soil Food Web School (Dr Elaine Ingham): https://www.soilfoodweb.com Great Dixter Biodiversity Audit: https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/about/c... REWILDING LAW GROUP Join the group on LinkedIn:   / 9578056   Rewilding Law Hub (Lifescape Project): https://lifescapeproject.org/rewildin...