The Desert Underground: Exposing a Valuable Hidden World Under Our Feet

If we could see the intricate systems that hum along underground, we would likely fight harder to protect our desert landscapes from unnecessary disturbance. Research around the world is showing that the biggest contributors to soil stability are the smallest of microorganisms. Tiny microbes are actually holding our vast desert landscapes together. The valuable role of these hidden microorganisms in keeping our air cleaner, preventing dust storms, controlling erosion, and helping us reduce carbon dioxide levels in our atmostphere is enormous, but that role is mostly overlooked and unappreciated when we make land-use decisions about our desert. This tour through the "desert underground" tells the story of our hidden soil magicians that work together to physically connect all the plants in the landscape in order to share food, moisture, and information while capturing and storing carbon underground. This critical partnership between desert microbes, plants, and soils silently protects the desert's potential for carbon sequestration and storage, our air quality, our health, our economy, our landscape, our ecotourism, our property values, and our quality of life - if the soil is left intact and alive.