The spiral of plants and soil in the cycle of life

Abstract

This is not an article, but rather an account of a meeting that took place between two naturalists who had not seen each other for a few years and who freely exchanged their doubts and matured lines of thought. It is a provocative dialogue between the author of this article and Sandro Pignatti on natural evolution, considering the soil as a living matrix in which recycling of organic matter (including DNA) takes place. We can also interpret it as an attempt to merge the points of view of vegetation and soil ecologists, in order to revive the discussion on natural evolution. We think we understand it, but we don’t. We discussed the following topics: 1) the relationship between phytosociology and plant ecology; 2) the soil as an individual or as an ecosystem’s digestive machinery; 3) the hypothesis of a complemental geological (long-term) flow of DNA fragments in relation to the recycling process that takes place in the soil. Past and recent research in the fields of biology and evolution highlights a functional and primordial collaboration between living beings in the exploitation of natural resources. In this process that ultimately is life, soil plays a crucial role because it is cyclically and progressively renewed and enriches the sources of structural building blocks. The purpose of this story is to encourage us to reflect on the meaning of life, considering the functional contribution of death, which we perhaps mistakenly call “biodegradation”.