Rooting for Earth: How Our Lost Roots are Affecting the Future of Our Planet

Introduction:

Our planet is facing a challenge that we have never seen before: the climate crisis. The effects of the climate crisis have touched every corner of the globe, from rising sea levels to more frequent natural disasters. In the face of these challenges, many people have dedicated their lives to finding solutions to protect our planet. However, one solution that is often overlooked is the humble, yet powerful, root system.

As the foundation of plant ecosystems, roots play a critical role in holding the world in place against environmental changes. However, the loss of roots due to the conversion of forest land into farmland is affecting our planet's foundation in more ways than we realize.

The Importance of Roots:

The importance of roots cannot be overstated. They stabilize the soil, protecting sloped areas from landslides and erosion, while also breaking up bedrock. This is foundational to forest ecosystems, allowing other plants to grow. In fact, trees completely changed the planet forever when they showed up around 400 million years ago in the Devonian period.

Not only do they keep plants fed and watered, they can also make it easier for water and nutrients to stay in the soil. Roots store water in them for drier days, and heavily rooted soils also stay damp longer, making these systems much more resilient to drought conditions. Since the climate crisis is only going to increase the frequency and intensity of droughts, roots are an important bulwark against their effects.

In addition, roots can also contribute to reducing climate change as a whole, by taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil. The carbon that plants use to make sugar in photosynthesis comes straight from the air in the form of CO2. And much of that gets incorporated into the plant's biomass. And in plants with fairly extensive root systems, much of that biomass is underground, where it isn't in contact with the atmosphere. When the plant dies and microbes help it decompose, some of that carbon stays trapped in the soil.

The Loss of Roots:

Sadly, we are losing our roots at an alarming rate. Not all roots are created equal. Some plants, like trees and other woody plants, have deep and extensive root systems, while other plants, like the crops that we grow to eat, tend to have a shallower root system. However, due to the conversion of forest land into farmland, the proportion of shallow-rooted crop plants is much higher than it would be otherwise.

Additionally, even with woody encroachment, a phenomenon where woody plants are spreading into areas that never used to be able to support them, Earth's roots are getting shallower across the globe. In a 2022 study that used models to predict global root depth, researchers showed that Earth has likely lost 11.6 trillion cubic meters of rooted volume already, which means the average root depth globally has gotten about 8 cm shorter. That's a loss of 5% of Earth's total root volume!

The Impact of the Loss of Roots:

This loss of roots has a significant impact on the future of our planet. Roots contribute to reducing climate change through CO2 storage and also help prevent soil erosion, which is important for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. The amount of water in soils is a function of root depth, and soils currently do not contain enough water to sustain ecosystems. With this trend likely to continue in the next hundred years, the soils may become less fertile and no longer available for water or carbon storage, leading to poorer-quality soil.

Solutions:

Thankfully, there are solutions that we can implement to protect our planet's foundation. Reducing the amount of land used for agriculture and reducing meat consumption will help. Additionally, reforestation projects and policy changes to reduce deforestation could help balance the loss of roots from agriculture.

Conclusion:

Roots are not just the foundation of plant ecosystems; they are the foundation of our planet. Protecting the roots of our planet through reforestation, conservation, and sensible agricultural practices is crucial in ensuring a sustainable future for us all. By working together for the greater good, we can ensure Mother Earth has the foundation she needs to thrive. Let's root for Earth and give our planet the foundation it deserves.