The graphs below show different classes of bacteria and fungi represented in band colors, and the composition of their communities as a result of their sensitivity towards changing soil pH levels. All organisms are sensitive towards their environments and surrounding ecosystems. In soil where they lack nutrients, most organisms typically respond in ways such as changing color or size. Understanding this as the language of bioindication allows us to read ecosystems. Soil health is dependent upon multiple factors; understanding the different bacteria and fungal classes that thrive or don’t survive in different soils tells us about the biological and chemical makeup of the soils.

Editor’s Note: Charlotte introduced the POOL team to MicrobeWiki - a valuable resource for all things microbe and soil-health related.

Charlotte, born in Chile, grew up between Barbados and Scotland. She graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a BA in Architecture where she was nominated for the Scottish Ecological Design Association in her final year. After this she completed a year working in practice in Amsterdam at Office Winhov working on a range of projects. On returning to complete her MA in Architecture she went to the RCA where she was tutored firstly by Rotor on sustainable practices of re-use in her first year, when she designed as a protest against current rates of demolition. In her final year she was tutored by Cooking Sections where she focused her Thesis on ways of reading and designing for the landscape through more-than-human perspectives; understanding a substance and its metabolic pathways as the starting point for a project. Her dissertation focused on political ecology and the first plant species, Manoomin - a wild rice, to be granted Rights of Nature.