Compost Primer
Inspirational Path
Part 2: holobiont mindset
Bioamendments can promote thriving ecological relationships. Reestablishing such holobionts strengthens host and ecosystem health and resilience (Vandenkoornhuyse et al., 2015). In many cases, local biological communities (microbes, microfauna, invertebrates, and other forms of life) are less abundant (biomass) and diverse (species richness) than we want, and diminished ecological activity is linked to disease and degradation (Spooren et al., 2024).
Activating Partner Organisms
Applying locally-produced compost is a great strategy to ensure plant allies are present and active. This encourages organisms that partner with plants to assemble around and within hosts and develop into a prospering community.
In some cases, there are various organisms already present in local soil ecosystems; however, essential members of that community (like the fungal population) may be relatively inactive, rare, or less diverse due to past disturbances (like tillage), a lack of plant diversity (like monocropping), or other disruptions (like prolonged drought).
Filling Gaps and Stimulating Organisms
Indeed, many soil ecosystems have serious gaps in local soil food webs. Human activities have contributed and are continuing to drive global biodiversity loss. Ongoing alterations in soil habitats can tilt the stage to repress important organisms, and relatively less diverse soil ecosystems are commonly less robust against stress (Lankau et al., 2022).
Organisms within bioamendments may improve local biodiversity (variety of species). Even when the biological community in compost is redundant, there’s evidence of plant and microorganism biostimulation associated with many biochemical substances found in compost (Lumactud et al., 2022; Aguilar-Paredes et al., 2023).
Indeed, there can be several overlapping positive outcomes from applying compost, even in healthy soil ecosystems. Living compost can wake up dormant organisms, reduce resource limitations, support regulating services, or trigger plant responses, such as induced resistance to stress and/or pathogens.
Many Paths to Regeneration
There are many approaches and techniques for bioamendment production, and many different styles and processes can be effective. Anaerobic biofermentation, aerobic composting, or a combination can be utilized for regeneration of land and soil.
When local soil food webs and ecological relationships are our top priorities, we see that many different pathways can lead to recovery. Thankfully, most organisms that flourish in active compost systems support thriving holobionts. In other words, community organisms can better assemble after we apply high-quality bioamendments.