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Table
of Contents
Introduction
A brief introduction
to how modern research techniques are revealing to us for the
first time the incredible diversity of life beneath our feet,
and an overview of the scope and objectives of the book.
PART
I: ANCIENT LIFE
Chapter
1. Origins
Origin of the Earth and its soils, and the evidence that life
may have originated in a subterranean environment, with clay minerals
serving as catalysts for the synthesis of the first biomolecules.
Chapter
2. The Habitable Zone
How the discovery of "extremophile" microbes that thrive in the
deep hot subsurface, without oxygen, sunlight, or organic carbon
sources, is changing our perspective on the possibilities of extraterrestrial
life.
Chapter
3. Shaking the Tree of Life
How molecular genetics led to the discovery of a third "domain"
of life-the Archaea-a type of extremophile microbe, and how this
alters our concept of the evolutionary "tree of life".
PART
II: LIFE SUPPORT FOR PLANET EARTH
Chapter
4. Out of Thin Air
The critical role of free-living and symbiotic bacteria of the
underground who are capable of capturing nitrogen from the air
and converting it to a molecular form the rest of us can utilize.
Chapter
5. Nexus of the Underground
The ubiquitous mycorrhizal root fungi: how they connect plants
underground, and played a critical role in the evolution of life
on land.
Chapter
6. When the Humble Explain the Great
Charles Darwin's lifelong study of earthworms, and more recent
discoveries of earthworm behavior and their ecological significance.
Chapter
7. Germ Warfare
The dual nature of soils-- as a reservoir for deadly crop and
human diseases, while at the same time serving as the primary
source for our most powerful antibiotics and biocontrol agents.
PART
III: THE HUMAN FACTOR
Chapter
8. Endangered Diggers of the Deep
The tragic history of human interactions with prairie dogs, a
keystone species of the grasslands of the American West, and subsequent
impacts on other species such as the black-footed ferret and burrowing
owl.
Chapter
9. The Good Earth
Human activities associated with soil erosion and other forms
of land degradation, as well as climate change and acid rain,
can disrupt the proper functioning of our precious soil resource,
and jeopardize our future food security.
Epilogue
Notes
and References
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Book
Jacket Description
There are
over one billion organisms in a pinch of soil, and many of them
perform functions essential to all life on the planet. Yet we
know much more about deep space than about the universe below.
In Tales From the Underground, Cornell ecologist David W. Wolfe
takes us on a spectacular tour of this unfamiliar subterranean
world, introducing us to the bizarre creatures that live there,
as well as the devoted scientists who study them.
We follow
the progress of discovery from Charles Darwin's experiments with
earthworms and Lewis and Clark's first encounter with prairie
dogs, to the isolation of streptomycin and other antibiotics from
the soil and the use of new genetic tools that are revealing an
astonishingly rich ecosystem beneath our feet.
The first
stop on this amazing journey takes us deep into the earth's rocky
crust, where life may have begun--a world devoid of oxygen and
light but safe from asteroid bombardment. The recent discovery
of unusual microbes that thrive at these depths today has greatly
expanded our notion of earth's biodiversity and has forced us
to re-draw the evolutionary tree of life. Many scientists now
believe that the total amount of biomass underground exceeds that
of the surface. Home to miniscule water bears and microscopic
bacteria, mole rats and burrowing owls, the underground reigns
supreme.
Wolfe lifts
the veil on this hidden world, revealing for the first time what
makes subterranean life so unique--and so precious. Soil creatures
work hard for us, producing important pharmaceuticals, recycling
life's essential elements, and helping plants gather nutrients
from below. But human activities could easily disrupt the delicate
balance within the underground. As Wolfe so eloquently explains,
the future of our species may well depend on how we manage our
living soil resource.
An
original, awe-inspiring journey through a strange realm, Tales
From the Underground will forever alter our appreciation of the
natural world around--and beneath--us.
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Publisher's Weekly review (May
28, 2001)
The world
around us, according to Wolfe, a Cornell University plant physiologist,
isn't quite as it appears. Our perspective is skewed because we
are "surface chauvinists" when, in fact, a great deal of the earth's
biological activity occurs underground. "The latest scientific
data suggest that the total biomass of the life beneath our feet
is much more vast than all that we observe aboveground." Wolfe
does a superb job of describing in nontechnical, accessible terms
the major groups of organisms living below ground and the ecological
roles they play. Whether he is writing of bacteria, fungi, earthworms,
prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets and burrowing owls-Wolfe is
consistently engaging. He argues convincingly that life on our
planet most likely began not in some primordial ocean but rather
deep beneath the surface under extreme temperature conditions,
and that this information needs to inform our search for extraterrestrial
life. These largely unseen ecological communities play surprisingly
critical roles in human civilization, from aiding in soil formation
to assisting plant growth and from controlling the world's nitrogen
cycle to helping curtail erosion. Wolfe, by asserting that many
of our current ecological practices run the risk of disrupting
the lives of our subterranean neighbors, raises issues and questions
that deserve a wide hearing.
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