Transcripts For DW Tomorrow Today 20221106

A world wide problem. How can soil be restored to full health . Ah, thats a topic in this edition of dw science magazine. Welcome to tomorrow to day. Soil not only provides us with feed, its also natural habitat, as well as a water and carbon reservoir. It consists of different layers. There is hardly any life in the bedrock and the weather stone fragments above it. Apart from a few isolated roots, water is filtered and stored in the sub soil. The topsoil is full of nutrients and forms a habitat for numerous microbes. The human layer it provides the material that plants need to grow. Fertile soil doesnt come out of nowhere. Its phone from rocks that are with it by the sun, wind and rain, and its decomposed by organisms and plants. It takes 2000 years to create 10 centimeters of fertile soil. For soil to remain fatal and healthy microbes need to be present. But that can be a problem what we are doing basically, either destroying this soil date is it, and now im not doing you ago at resource, christina cruise specializes in the interactions between plants, soil, and microbes. What we have been doing so far during the last day to actually is navy ease do use soils as a sub strategy grow black, weve been under valuing them and expecting them to stay healthy, but tilling over using chemicals and Climate Change are harming our soils. This is a problem for growing food, as well as resources for clothing in construction. Soil is also key to storing carbon and filtering water to make sales healthy again, we need to start seeing them as what they are. Entire ecosystems teeming with hidden life, all run by my groups. A healthy soil will have a diversity of my groups. The most common ones are bacteria and fungi. One of their most important jobs is transforming nutrients. Every single nutrition cycle on the planet is mostly driven by my Jennifer Wood has a background in soil microbial ecology and studies how microbes affect ecosystems. None of these cycles really exist in a vacuum. They all into linked. One of those nutrients cycles is with carbon. Plants and animals are made mostly of carbon. And when they die, theyre broken down by micros. No microbes, no decomposition. The microbes use some of the carbon to reproduce, storing it in the soil, and breathe the rest of it out, sending it back to the atmosphere. Another nutrient cycle happens with the nitrogen, which makes most of the air around us, and is one of the main nutrients plants used to grow. Plants cant get it from the air by themselves, so they partner with microbes, microbes specifically fund guy, also exchange other nutrients of plants. They very fine routes called hifi. The intertwined themselves with the roots of the plant. Congress is really good at releasing things like site from the plan. So it does that and exchange is that the plant in return for things like sugar, which the plant can make tricks. Theres also some evidence this relationship makes the plant more able to withstand drought. And disease in a degraded soil. These new chain cycles arent working as well as they could be. Climate change is one cause of degrading soils with drought and extreme weather, causing them to dry out in a road intensive. Agriculture can be another cause as pesticides and are besides kill off beneficial microbes and reduce their activity. The more degraded soil is the more chemicals are needed to grow stuff degrading this while even further. And when you start digging, its amazing what you find down there. This is benny france. Hes an electro engineer, turned farmer and has been on this land for 4 years. Tons of our records are turned like this route. So i would feel the running mother into well, mostly samo, even though different parts of the world have very different soils. One thing all degraded agricultural souls have been comment, is that they are susceptible to disease that we dont want those soils to contain many passages. So the pathogen might, might be an indicator off a degrading sla pathogens. The worst soil is degraded, soils also lose their ability to hold and filter water are more susceptible to erosion and have less of those beneficial microbes. Meaning plants dont grow as well. But soil health is about more than just our food security, boil communities, and so health is actually the foundation of all ecosystems, but natural and man, hey, if the foundation of something crumbles, Everything Else comes tumbling down no till agriculture, leave soil undisturbed which allows the microbes living inside the clamps to thrive, specifically those fund guy, high feet, which are important for soil structure. There can be a kilometer of them and a gram of soil and cover crops planted to leave in the ground, provide micros of carbon to chow down on, as well as reduce erosion and nutrient los well and encourages those fungal microbes to grab. It can also be made into a liquid fertilizer. First of all, were gonna massage it in and then were gonna feed it on. So the bacteria and from that will multiply a lot. This compost, he concentrates microbes into a form that can be sprayed on fields. Unfortunately, this kind of farming just isnt possible everywhere. You can do it. Thats fantastic. Heeds warped, we warms. But the ball run me, did vast the mountain areas where the soil, we so did great that these techniques on hunting. Now you can recover the soil in your time. Heres room microbes come in. Our larger scale the most common uses is bio fertilizers. Theyre used like chemical base fertilizer, except they contain fungi, or bacteria. Soil degradation is a big enough threat that bear a company known for selling our cultural chemicals is also interested. Their quality already knows. Or in a ball concrete is frank terrorist is the executive Vice President for the Crop Science Division with a background and Business Economy by adults as it is with b, a, b, a health jewel, with carrie before the law. The company is also investing in seeds that had been infused with microbes because delivery microbes along with seeds, is the most targeted way to apply them. Seats can also be planted with a coating of microbes, conservation organizations are using this approach to restore ecosystems. A problem with commercial microbial products is that the microbes are not specifically adapted to environment. Non native microbes could find it hard to survive, rendering the process useless. And because these are living organisms, they could cause an imbalance in the micro biome. We sees something we need nearly half june to taking concentration, especially. We found john lucas this brad faster and they are more easy. She sank even better agrees. Oh, it doesnt necessarily need amenity. Oh, since soils are different around the world, we would ideally develop microbial products for specific regions, but that will take time and more research. Unfortunately, our soil health is an emergency. We are going to need it because we actually cover closing the seas. The cheapest way to do recovery because we are covering them while we are maintaining the dvd to for large farms. Bio fertilizers are a step above chemicals and where possible agriculture that relies on helping native my groups like on this farm is the way to go. Our soil is becoming more and more depleted from intensive agriculture. Where do you see opportunities to better protect the soil ecosystem . Thats what we asked on d. W. Social Media Channels than de gomez rides, infrastructure integration and investment on needed to digitize agriculture. Thats crucial for developing countries or as command takes a very practical approach, we can use organic fertilizer it reminds roberta to to alarcon of the old testament, which describes working the 947, and letting it rest for 7 years. Maybe if he tries it will. What he says, thanks for your comments. Intensive agriculture not only can syn soil, but also a loss of water. Methods such as drip irrigation can help to reduce consumption. This is important because almost 7 to percent the worlds available fresh water ends up on arab alone. Yet less than one percent of the s noted supply is accessible. Renewable fresh water above majority is salt water. Water is also the subject of the question sent to us by brown of nobody away from nigerian bowl. Is there any liquid water in outer space . More than 2 thirds of the earths surface is covered with liquid water. Thats why its called the blue planet. Liquid water is the most important prerequisite for the creation of life. We believe that life began in hydrothermal, vince at the bottom of the deep ocean, simple organisms which have evolved over billions of years into the animals plants and microbes that populate our planet. To die with our earth is the only planet in the solar system that has liquid water on its surface. Liquid water can also be found on the i see moons of the gaseous giants, jupiter and saturn. But its buried under ice sheets more than a kilometer. Thick water can also be found under the surface of mars. On the red planet surface, though, water is only present as ice or as vapor in the atmosphere. As far as we know, how universe has been around for about 14000000000 years, water has been present for 12000000000 years. Astronomers have calculated that from the light of a quasar. Water is present everywhere in the universe as vapor or as microscopic crystals clinging to dust grains in the frozen waists about a space on earth, theres liquid water because we orbit the sun at a certain distance. That means the earth surface is at precisely the right temperature, so that water isnt locked up in ice sheets or evaporated into the atmosphere. This all the distance where the earth travels is nicknamed the goldilocks sown. Every star has a similar habitable zone. Not only our son, another rocky planet, similar to the earth orbiting. A star in a similar goldilocks own, could also have liquid water on its surface. And so could also support life if our blood is red, why i do you have a science class to send it to us as a video text oh, voicemail. If we answer it on the show, well send you a little surprise as the thank you. Come on, just does plan. Its beyond the solar system. Thats what scientist laura cry ferg is looking for. So far. Shes done this with the help of the hubble telescope, but for several months now hobbled success in curtains wept. Telescope has been on the move in space. It provides fascinating images from the cosmic neighborhood like the planet jupiter, and is so light sensitive that it can see even very distant galaxies. The near telescope is also expected to be helpful in the search for ex oclock. Ah, there are about a 100000000000 stars in the milky way galaxy. We think almost every star has at least one planet. So there are hundreds of billions of planets, lake we in our own galaxy, and hundreds of billions of galaxies out there. Ah. I would be shocked if there is no extra terrestrial wife out there. Ah i i think its so lonely if humans are the only living things the only intelligent beings in the universe. There is such a strong human desire to know who we are and where we come from and why every time i see a star in the night sky, i asked myself what kind of planets around it . Oh, planets are really places we can imagine them as some where you could visit. Maybe you wouldnt want to, maybe its too high. It may be the amateurs made out of toxic gases that would kill us. But nevertheless, it truly is a place that you could imagine going to. And for me, thats one of the biggest fascinations of when it says that it feel so personal in a way that a star galaxy or black hole doesnt. Ah, some planets are so hot that even rocky material rock iron locate glass is vaporized in their atmosphere. And when this rock gas moves into cooler regions, it can condense into clouds and potentially rain out. And so you could think of it as having a glass rain on an echo planet. Ah, this is sophia testicle. We never, this is an example of the type of spectacular discovery that i never could imagine. There was much, much more variety out there than we ever could have imagined from our own planet. Ah, we do know already, rocky planets, extremely common there. Tens of billions of those planets in our galaxy alone. We still do not exactly know how come in 1st and last part, just knowing the size of the planet and the temperature of the planet is not the story. One of the biggest goals is to take the next step and measure the atmospheres of these planets directly. And thats the information we need to say, whether its true we earth like, or not, the nearest point it that we know of is called proximal centauri. Be it is the planet perhaps not so different from earth. So similar size, similar temperature is the earth. It is about for the late years away from us, which in the whole scheme of the galaxy is right next door. It is so close the even if we tried to get there with normal rocket propulsion, it would take tens of thousands of years to reach it. Oh. And the 1st echo planet was discovered in 995. Over 5000 planets have been confirmed around other stars, and weve learned a lot about their sizes or temperatures or were bit and now for my work were just beginning to scratch the surface of what their atmosphere or like, ah, atmosphere is what makes the planet place it is responsible for whether its thats the climate or an earthlink. It determines whether it could possibly be habitable that had to steer also tells us a lot about how the planet formed and how it evolved over time. I 2 of the primary techniques we use to characterize the planets are called transit when the planet passes in front of the star. And also eclipses when the planet passes behind the star. They give us different complimentary information. And so by combining these types of measurements, we can really get a very complete picture of what the planet is like o. One of the most famous potentially habitable planets has called trappist when this is a very special planetary system, its nearby, so easy for us to study and this star has 7 rocky planet orbiting it all of them transiting so we can see them. Ah, and one of the planets, planet e is in the habitable zone of the stars. So could potentially have liquid water. And it could even have life the, i think it was the next 10 years, will truly be a golden age appointed atmosphere characterization. Theres so much to come and theres this incredible speed, a pace of discovery. Its really incredible. Ah, so trappist wind is one of the most popular systems to be observed with the new james face telescope, which launched on Christmas Day of 2021. And every single planet in the system will be observed, ah, me for this test hope has a much bigger collecting area than hubble has. And that allows us to push to inter observations, planet. Theyre not so hot actually. And so it broadens the number of planets we can look at the. And so it just opens up so many doors to learning about new and different planets. And weve ever study before j w s t is only the beginning later on and the decade will see 1st bite for the next generation of ground based telescope systems. The european extremely large telescope, which is the biggest telescope ever constructed. And that will also provide us with a leap forward and what we can learn about the planets as to what i expect. The only thing i can say with certainty is that there will be surprises. Ah, every time we look at extra planets we see something we were not expecting to put on my good scientists. Tat, i have to say, im coming in with no expectations. I will let the data guide me. Well see what we see where it takes a very expert, i to look at our data and interpret what that means for the planet. Sometimes i talk to my husband whos a Data Scientist and he looks at my plots and he says you, you learned what about the planet from those squiggly lines. But ive been working on this now for over a decade. And to me those quigley, lines are beautiful and filled with information. Its like, you know, as if you walked down the street and you and you see someone with bright red hair, black hair, you can so easily tell the difference. And for me, thats what the specter of the planets look like. Oh, there is such a vast possibility of what these atmospheres and what these planets could be like. I want to know how often rocky planets have atmospheres under what conditions would you expect a planet to be hospitable for life and eventually eventually my big dream is to find evidence for life on a rocky x upon it. Ah, and yet the information we have about them, even with our most advanced newest, tells folks still never get every piece of information that we would find me. Im grateful for this because it means they have a great and interesting job for many years as we were to figure this out. I do feel very strongly that were just at the beginning of a long journey to know for sure that there is another inhabited planet out there completely changes our perspective about our place in the universe. And so even if we can talk to them, even if we can visit them, its still so important to know. I think it would fascinate people all over the world. The searching for life on other planets makes me appreciate life here on earth, even more. It makes me appreciate all of the things that are special about very a Little Flower or a brood flying it. It seems even more miraculous to me knowing the vast possibilities that are out there. And here we are on comfortable cozy earth as our home. It also makes me very, very conscious of the fact that we need to take care of because it is so special and there is no planet be ah and thats all we have time for today. Thank you for joining us. See you next time on tomorrow. Today, until then, thank you. Bye bye. Ah, ah, with who sustainable traveling. How does it run in d. W. Travel reporter and you tuba, swati, mission drug, test that out in frankfort. And take in inside a tips and tricks to make traveling more Climate Friendly checking with w. Ah, re examining the way the holocaust is memorialized. There is the culture of remembrance froze in time. Is it distracting us from honoring other historical atrocities in the future of remembrance, culture and international question . Arts 21 in 30 minutes on d. W. O. A has no limits. Love is for everybody. Love is life. I love matters and thats my new podcast. Im evelyn char, mom and i really think we need to talk about all the topics that more divides and deny that this i have invited many deer and well known guests. And i would like to invite you to an in, oh, okay. And they get all the harvesters or immigrants go. Lucas, they come in. Everything you enjoy eating at home with your family was harvested by people who are being exploited. Then i d. s for free, and were going to need to, uh huh. We can keep doing what were doing. We need to become as sustainable as possible management, and thats why youre green revolutionaries. Its absolutely necessary. Europe review the future thing, determine now our documentary series will show you how people, companies and countries are we thinking everything and making later changes were made on for about if a massive cyber attack or Something Like that happens, we joy our country from the outside. Welcome, im going to be sure. Its our future after all. And if we dont do something, our children wont be able to enjoy fresh air will be lost, or is it on . Europe revealed this week on d. W. With. Ah, this is, these are the news and these are our top stories. The humans annual climate summits cop 27 has begun in egypt against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and Global Energy crises. Delegates from over