Emma Camille Barreto: Soil Citizens

Our planet is currently experiencing its sixth episode of human-induced mass extinction, leading to a decline in up to forty percent of all insect species. As we witness this catastrophic deterioration of life, it is crucial to preserve sensorial methods for identifying the natural world around us, and pass these methods on to amateur enthusiasts, autodidacts, and citizen scientists as a means for coping with climate crisis. “Soil Citizens” seeks to explore the immensely biodiverse population of soil-dwelling organisms residing in the soils of Athens and create a clear method for self-taught field education.

Soil mesofauna is comprised of detritivores and decomposers that inhabit the soil’s surface and play a critical role in breaking down dead and decaying organic matter, transforming it into nutrients. Despite their significant contribution to soil health and agriculture, they are scantily researched by the professional scientific community. However, a strong underbelly of self-taught experts and insect devotees exists in the sea of internet forums and social media groups. Tapping into the guerilla field-collecting methods of these groups, a preliminary survey of springtails, mites, myriapods, and other soil invertebrates will be conducted and displayed in a makeshift laboratory. The research further aims to reveal the radical democratization of knowledge that happens through self-teaching and the importance of whim and wonder guiding scientific learning that scholarly institutions may otherwise deem irrelevant.