Water, Earth, Bodies

How can we reveal the microbial communities that link us through our different bodies - earth, water, plants and ourselves?  

During this winter residency, we continued our exploration of the territories crossed by 2km4.  
I collaborated with Gaëlle Vincent, research engineer (ESE), to analyse soil samples taken at various stations along the transect using the MicroResp method, a technique that measures the functional microbial diversity of a soil through its release of CO?, revealing its respiratory activity.  

At the same time, Ludwig Jardillier (ESE), a microbiologist, cultured water samples from the pond in order to identify certain microorganisms present under the lenses of the laboratory microscopes.  

We are also investigating the influence of sound on these invisible interactions. Fanny Rybak (NeuroPsi) recorded the soundscapes of four stations (field, wasteland, forest, banks of the Yvette) for 5 minutes every half-hour for a fortnight. These recordings, integrating technophony, geophony and biophony, raise the question of their impact on microbiota and on the development of plants, from seed to flower. We know that plants perceive sound. Are we also conditioned by our exposure to the sounds of human activity?  

To explore these interactions, four terrariums house three plant species (mercuriale, teucrium, pimprenelle), whose seeds will evolve until the end of June under the continuous influence of recorded sound environments.  

In another material approach to the territory, I took samples of foliage from the top to the bottom of the stations, to make paper incorporating these plant fragments and the earth. This paper becomes the ‘skin of the path’, a sensitive imprint of the route followed over the last two years. Using recycled cellulose, I designed scales inspired by the silica structures that make up the envelope of Euglypha, a soil micro-organism, thus reconstituting an organic map of the path in winter.  

Finally, during the February sharing session in the study greenhouse, Fanny Rybak presented her sound collection protocol. For my part, I proposed an experiment in making paper using Typha down, collected from the drainage site bordering the IDEEV.