Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life

Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to subterranean life
Review: _Tales from the Underground_ by David W. Wolfe is an excellent though rather brief introduction to the organisms that live underground; it is only 188 pages long, 206 if one count's the end notes and bibliography (which are quite worthwhile to at least browse). One of the things I liked about the book was that Wolfe was clearly enthusiastic about his subject and expressed a real sense of wonder for the fascinating organisms that dwell under the earth's surface.

He began the book with a nice overall introduction to the subject, more than sufficient to grab my attention. In one just pinch of soil from your backyard, you will be holding close to one billion individual living organisms, including quite a few that are not named, classified, or in any way studied, animals ranging in size from the tiniest of microbes to microscopic threads of fungal hyphae, the total length of which might be best measured in miles, not inches. In a handful of soil there are more creatures than humans currently alive. A typical square yard of soil contains billions of microscopic roundworms called nematodes, a dozen to several hundred earthworms, 100,000 to 500,000 insects and other arthropods, and staggering numbers of single-celled organisms. After reviewing some basics about soil layers and types, he went into more detail about this subterranean world.

The first chapter discussed the origins of life on earth, much of which had to do with life in the soil. The complex structure and chemistry of clay crystals may have played a vital role in the development of life, perhaps initially serving as the "infrastructure" of the first, most primitive organisms, this infrastructure eventually being discarded as more and more organic molecules such as those in amino and nucleic acids took over clay's replication and synthesis functions. According to some theorists clay made possible the very first sequencing of simple proteins and genes thanks to its unique properties.

Chapter two introduced the "extremophiles," organisms that live in hostile environments, many of which exist in subterranean conditions. Some organisms "breathe in" iron oxide (rust) as a substitute for oxygen, while others are able to incorporate cobalt and even uranium into their biological processes. Much of the chapter gave the history of the study of extremophiles, as biologists continually had to revise their notions of what life could tolerate as they found organisms living at ever higher temperatures and depths (with organism at 9,000 foot depths and at temperatures higher than 160 degrees Fahrenheit having been discovered). Of further interest, these organisms may be the most common in the world, with some calculations showing that their total biomass exceeds that of all surface life. Study of one group, lithotrophic microbes, which live buried in basalt rock deep beneath the surface, has been vital in the search for life on other planets.

Chapter three focused primarily on Dr. Carl Woese of the University of Illinois, a researcher who discovered an entire new microbial superkingdom of organisms, the Archaea, a finding that radically changed how the various kingdoms of organisms were classified, a discovery that was highly controversial, as he changed the tree of life from one based primarily on visual characteristics to one based on his molecular approach. Woese found that a number of organisms assumed to be bacteria were something entirely different, as different from bacteria at least as plants are from animals. In the end the new tree of life consists of three superkingdoms or domains, Bacteria, Archaea (which includes many extremophiles), and Eukarya (which encompasses plants, animals, fungi, and protozoa).

Chapter four emphasized the importance of "nitrogen-fixers," a small group of bacteria and archaea that are able to convert nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into a form the rest of life on earth can use, a biological innovation every bit as important as the advent of photosynthesis to the history of life on earth. Wolfe showed the rather intricate symbiosis between nitrogen-fixers and plants as well their complex biology. He also discussed the role of denitrifiers, organisms that aid in the recycling of nitrogen on earth as they are able to convert soil nitrates back into atmospheric nitrogen.

Chapter five dealt with the equally important symbiosis between plants and highly specialized underground fungi, vital in enabling plants to obtain water and nutrients from the soil (and occasionally other plants). More than 90% of the higher plants on the planet today benefit from their association with the delicate threadlike hyphae in their roots, a group known as mycorrhizal fungus. Wolfed discussed the two types, arbuscular mycorrhizae (so named because their unique branching, tree-shaped hyphal structures) and the ectomycorrhizae, both of which are the foundation of most terrestrial ecosystems.

Chapter six dealt with earthworms, much of it providing information and anecdotes about Charles Darwin's decades long study of them. Also vital to ecosystems, they act as biological blenders, fragmenting plant debris and mixing it with the soil and living and dead microbial biomass, creating more surface area for further production of humus.

The next chapter discussed some of the good and bad effects on human health of soil organisms. The passages on the soil-borne pathogen _Clostridium tetani_, the cause of tetanus, made for chilling reading. Wolfe also related information about the fungus-like _Phytopthora infestans_, which causes potato late blight, source of the 1840s potato famine in Ireland (and a disease that may be making a comeback). Soil organisms have also done a lot of good; the root fungus _Trichoderma harzianum_ targets a variety of disease-causing soil microbes, and working in the 1940s soil biologist Dr. Selman Waksman discovered a number of potent antibiotics from soil bacteria.

Chapter eight was quite interesting, dealing with the interesting life history and often tragic human history of three animals, the prairie dog, black-footed ferret, and burrowing owl.

The final chapter dealt with the primary threats to soil ecology, notably soil erosion, toxic waste, and climatic change (both acid rain and global warming).

A great introduction to subterranean life, worthwhile reading.


Rating:
Summary: Fascinating exploration; very readable
Review: A sea change in our attitude toward life has occurred in recent years owing to the discovery of extremophiles, microorganisms that can live in extreme environments such as the scalding waters of Yellowstone Park or deep under the ocean near vents of molten rock, or simply underground. These life forms, previously unknown, are now believed by some to constitute a majority of the shear weight of life on this planet. That life can exist without oxygen has long been known (indeed the first life forms lived without oxygen), but to exist without the products of photosynthesis, at least the indirect products, was thought impossible. Now we know that some life forms can use purely chemical means for obtaining energy, and do not need sunlight at all.

David W. Wolfe, Associate Professor of Plant Ecology at Cornell, fired by his own enthusiasm for things extreme and underground, explores these ideas and findings in a captivating way in this informative book. He begins with the soil, what it is made of, how it was formed. "In a handful of typical healthy soil there are more creatures than there are humans on the entire planet," he advises us on page one. He explores the relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and their above ground symbionts, noting that within that same handful of soil there are "hundreds of miles of fungal threads." There are also within one square yard of soil "billions of microscopic roundworms called nematodes, anywhere from a dozen to several hundred of the much larger earthworms, and 100,000 to 5000,000 insects and other arthropods." He points out that many of these creatures "defy classification; they simply have never been seen before." (p. 2)

One of the problems that scientists encounter in trying to study the microorganisms of the soil is that they can't culture them in the lab. "They can't survive when isolated from their neighbors," Wolfe writes. And therein lies perhaps the central tale of this extremely interesting book, namely that we are all of an ecology here on this planet earth, and the interactions and mutualisms and co-dependencies of our existence are as yet only dimly perceived. Remember the biosphere experiment in the Arizona desert some years ago? It failed because the participants had no idea how to create a self-sustaining ecosystem mainly because they were ignorant of the work of the myriad creatures that live in, on, and under the soil.

Wolfe explores the relatively new (and very exciting) idea that life on earth did not begin in something like Darwin's warm pond, but instead deep underground, safe and secure from the horrendous activities on the surface. This idea is what is currently firing our excitement about exploring under the surface of Mars and some of the moons of the gas giants in search of the life that we now know might exist there. He looks into clay as the precursor of bio-replication, and as a catalyst, showing how clay crystals "have an organized structure" that is "heritable just as the mutations of real genes are." (p. 29)

Wolfe also explores how earthworms, prairie dogs and other life forms help to create the top soil upon which our life on earth depends. He looks into the work of Carl Woese and explains how the tree of life was shaken to its very roots by Woese's discovery of a new domain of life, and how the tree was reconstructed into a "universal tree of life" containing three distinct domains, Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. Woese and others did this through rRNA analysis. It is revolutionary to note that the base of the tree on page 65 is shaded entirely with "heat-loving microbes," the extremophiles now recognized as our ancient ancestors.

There is so much more to discuss in this modest, yet highly informative book, including the chemical warfare practiced by soil microbes, their importance in medicine, agriculture, and in maintaining the homeostasis of the planet, and the threat from human activities, topsoil erosion, acid rain, etc. But let me summarize by saying as I read this book I was struck once again with the massive interdependence of all life, forcing me to see mutualism and cooperation between and among species as the fundamental basis of life and not the long revered concept of competition. I suspect that before long the general view of life on earth will be one of diversity in harmony; indeed, I am becoming more and more convinced that the idea of Gaia, the planet as a life form itself, is a viable one.

Professor Wolfe ends the book with a warning not to "naively assume that science and technology will come up with a quick fix to avert the environmental train wreck we are headed toward." (p. 185). It is only through knowledge and a "tempering of our aggressive instinct to " that we will be able "to protect the living soil resource for future generations." (p. 186)

Rating:
Summary: Surprises Down Below
Review: According to David W. Wolfe, you are probably guilty of a form of chauvinism you didn't even know existed, "surface chauvinism." You know there are roots down there, and you have seen earthworms, but other than those, you may not have any appreciation for just how complicated things are beneath your feet. Wolfe, who does research in soil conservation and biodiversity, has set out to increase appreciation for his world, in Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life (Perseus Publishing). Not only can you stop being a surface chauvinist, but by reading this book you will have a foundation in some radically new biological ideas that are changing foundations of science.

In these pages, you will meet Dr. Carl Woese, who in 1976 suspected that the lowly methane-producing soil bacterium he was examining was something entirely different. He started doing analyses on the nucleic acid (specifically, RNA) in the creatures, and confirmed that they were more different from regular bacteria than humans are from redwood trees. He had not found a new species, but an entirely new superkingdom of organisms. You will become acquainted with microbial communities thousands of feet down, who thrive in hot temperatures, dark, high pressure, and lack of oxygen. They feed on oil or other carbon sources, or on hydrogen in the rocks. One of the results of these findings is that they seem to make the possibility of life on other planets more likely; it used to be that we looked for planets that had just about the same sunlight, water, and so on as our own, but this was another example of chauvinism. You will find out just how the lowly fungus has an intimate and essential relation to the roots of almost every plant, and about prairie dogs, and other animals digging around underneath.

Of course earthworms get a chapter in this enjoyable book, and the chapter is especially enjoyable because it concentrates on the work of Charles Darwin. Darwin has other claims to fame, but his last published work was on the humble earthworm. He studied them for decades, and even did an experiment of spreading chalk over a field and returning twenty-nine years later to see how much soil and vegetable mould had been brought up by the earthworms (six inches). The mild and tentative Darwin could not avoid controversy even in his ardent work on earthworms. Before his work, earthworms were regarded as garden pests which ate up the roots of plants, and though we now value earthworms, it took a while for their reputation to change.

Wolfe shows how soils are generally suppressants of disease (Selman Waksman was a soil biologist who found microbes that produced streptomycin), how bioremediation can be affected by humble bacteria or fungi that tie up heavy metals or clean up oil spills, and how by working with, rather than against, the millions of species within the earth, we might reclaim soil and reduce global warming. Leonardo da Vinci said, "We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot." It is still true, but let us hope Wolfe's efforts make some difference.

Rating:
Summary: Insights on underground ecology
Review: David W. Wolfe's Tales From The Underground (0-7382-0128-6, ...) is a natural history of subterranean life, examining life beneath the earth's crust and exploring underground worlds and habitats ranging from those where bacteria flourish to that which houses insects and animals. Discussions of habitable zones blend with insights on underground ecology.

Rating:
Summary: Superior Science Writing For The General Public
Review: Dr. Wolfe has written a book which is at once absolutely fascinating and tremendously fun to read. It begins as a study of how life originally began on Earth (not on the surface of the planet, it now seems clear) and proceeds to examine a series of subteranean topics which although obscure perhaps to most land dwellers, affect us all in critically significant ways.

Wolfe develops his tour of subsurface life with both scientific rigor and a highly entertaining ability to relate the human dimension behind the discoveries reported within these pages. Thus, for example, we come to learn that Darwin spent his later years consumed with an interest in the 'lowly' earthworm. And we are informed of the way in which Carl Woese, labouring diligently for decades in isolation in a university laboratory, brilliantly worked out the details of his discovery of an entirely new domain of life. Which perforce led to a radical reformulation of our notion of how all life evolved from the most primitive (microscopic) organisms into the more highly developed forms with which we are all familiar today.

Tales From The Underground was compiled in the finest tradition of science writing made accessible and informative for a lay audience. And its subject matter is riveting and timely. Especially given how heavily we humans seem to tread on, and interfere with, the subtle development of organic processes that have taken billions of years to evolve on our planet Earth.

Rating:
Summary: The Incredibly Exciting History of Soil Ecology
Review: Tales from the Underground will occupy a special place on the bookshelves of scientists and nonscientists alike for many years to come. Wolfe's history of soil ecology is an incredibly interesting tale, a tale told in such a way that will lead to broader appreciation and affection for soils and soil management. As a bonus, Wolfe uses the likes of Whitman, Nietzche, Steinbeck, Buck, and Virgil to help demonstrate that improving soil management is not only prerequisite to the earth's future, but a task that has important cultural significance as well.

Rating:
Summary: Skimming the (sub)surface
Review: This book is science at the level one sees on television. The emphasis is on the strange and unusual, liberally spiced with the author's opinions and prejudices. Alternative theories and explanations are either ignored or dismissed out of hand.

Suitable for a juvenile audience.

Rating:
Summary: Skimming the (sub)surface
Review: This book is science at the level one sees on television. The emphasis is on the strange and unusual, liberally spiced with the author's opinions and prejudices. Alternative theories and explanations are either ignored or dismissed out of hand.

Suitable for a juvenile audience.

Rating:
Summary: Examines unexplored terrain
Review: This natural history of subterranean life examines unexplored terrain and its unique and varied habitats, from microscopic life to small water bears. Particularly intriguing are the links made between subterranean life and its potentials for assisting mankind.