Complexity of Soil Microstructure

List of videos and pictures visualizing some of the models developed by the research group of Prof. John Crawford at the University of Sydney, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources. MicroCT scans were acquired at Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis.

	Video demonstrates simulated growth of fungal mycelium in a complex randomly generated 3D structure. Green beads are food resources and the color of each hypha reflects the proportion of mobile biomass in it with yellow for highly mobile and dark red for immobile. Original video file can be downloaded from google drive at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5GFjEniEIk_Ti1KcmxUMDVKS1E/edit
	A very primitive draft of the future Virtual Soil model
	TED@Sydney 2012 John Crawford: Healthy soil, healthy world John Crawford is a sustainable agriculturalist and Professor at the University of Sydney. His projects focus on soil modeling and the social and cultural systems of food. [Note: We want you to see these talks exactly as they happened! The archive footage might be a little rougher than the usual TED.com talk.] Presentation on TED: John Crawford: Healthy soil, healthy world
	4mm soil aggregate (X-ray micro-tomography scan) extracted from soil rich in carbon. "Soil is the most complicated biomaterial on the planet. In a handful of fertile garden or organic soil, there will be more individual organisms than the total number of human beings that have ever lived: 10¹² bacteria, 10⁴ protozoa, 10⁴ nematodes, 25 km of fungi, and countless other species. Depending on clay composition and amount, the soil’s total surface area could cover a full-sized football pitch. The geometrical complexity of the pore pathways determines the biochemical processes that govern life on Earth, such as plant productivity, water retention, and greenhouse gas emissions, and offer an unrivaled buffering capacity against potential pollutants entering the waterways." - John Crawford Original high-quality file: soil-structure-in-3d.avi (98.5 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	4mm soil aggregate (X-ray micro-tomography scan) extracted from soil rich in carbon. "This aggregated state gives rise to a broad range in pore sizes that permits the coexistence of air and water essential to the biological functioning of soil. This structure determines the ease with which plants may extract water, the rate of flow in unsaturated conditions, and the rate of diffusion of compounds and gases into and out of the soil matrix." - John Crawford Original high-quality file: soil-structure-flat-cross-section.avi (183.2 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	The soil flight simulator was presented at the public lecture "Soils to Society: the unseen power beneath our feet" given by Prof. John Crawford at the University of Sydney. The sample was scanned using X-ray microtomography scanner and reconstructed in 3D. The structure is real, the texture is artificial. Original high-quality file: flight-through-the-soil-cut.avi (442.0 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	Simulated fungi in a soil matrix. Original high-quality file: fungi-flight-through-2.avi (138.3 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	MicroCT scan of a 1cm soil core with Scotts® fertilizer granules in it. Original high-quality file: scotts-fertilizer-mix.avi (30.7 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	Simulated distribution of water in a 4mm soil aggregate (4.2 yrs improved pasture, high soil carbon 80T/Ha). Pore network consists of fine and highly interconnected channels. Original high-quality file: water-distribution-high-carbon-soil.avi (14.6 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	Simulated distribution of water in a 4mm soil aggregate (9.4 yrs improved pasture, low soil carbon 50T/Ha). Pore network is formed by few large channels. Original high-quality file: water-distribution-low-carbon-soil.avi (7.15 MB) To download the file right click on the link, choose "Save target as..." or "Save link as..." option
	The image shows a snapshot of a model for self-organisation in the soil-microbe system. It comprises an x-ray CT image of soil particle structure at 2um resolution with simulated growth of fungal mycelia. In soil, fungi change the particle packing, and the change in packing affects resource flow to the fungi. The resulting feedback between physics and biology causes the structure to dynamically organise into a state capable of supporting life. Without this feedback, we believe soil would be dead.
	The diagram demonstrates connectivity of micropores in a 4mm soil fragment. Nodes represent pores and edges represent interpore throats. Pore sizes range from 10 to 100 microns. Network contains 13,500 nodes and 26,000 edges in a single interconnected domain. The original network was built with specialized software that processes 3D micro-tomography data. The resulting 3D network was saved in TGF format and imported in yEd Graph Editor as a 2D graph. Organic layout with minimal restrictions was used to position the nodes. "Weight of connected edges" centrality measure was used to set the size of the nodes.