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Bacteria
“
The blow killed Babe and Paul Bunyan both, and after that Paul had to admit that he was beat.
But his own bacteria ate him, naturally, and they crawled all around down on the bedrock and under the megaregolith, down there going everywhere, sucking up the mantle heat, and eating the sulfides, and melting down the permafrost. And everywhere they went down there, every one of those little bacteria said I am Paul Bunyan.
”
― Red Mars
― Red Mars
“
Bacteria are so small they need to stick to things or they will wash away; to attach themselves, they produce a slime, the secondary result of which is that individual soil particles are bound together. [...]
Fungal hyphae, too, travel through soil, sticking to them and binding them together, thread-like, into aggregates. [...]
The soil food web, then, in addition to providing nutrients to roots in the rhizosphere, also helps create soil structure: the activities of its members bind soil parti
...more
”
― Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
― Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
