Without spoken commentary, this film depicts both the life of the soil and the life within it. The parent rock weathers, and soil is born. It cracks under the Sun, then rain brings it back to life: seeds germinate, and animals burrow and bustle below and above the soil”s surface. To complete the chemical cycle, fungi, agents of decay, flourish, themselves to decay in turn. Scavenging insects pick a mouse corpse clean, and a new generation of shoots sprouts among the bones.
[Text appears: For millions of years, immense forces have weathered and shaped the surface of the earth to produce a thin layer of soil. Yet this constantly changing, fragile veneer is the foundation of all terrestrial life. The soil is both the source and the product of the cycle of life and decay. ]
[The scene changes to lightning striking and rocks tumbling down a steep hill]
[Title appears: The living soil]
[Scene changes to the sun rising over the mountains as clouds drift by in timelapse]
[Image changes to snow falling on a rocky mountain]
[Image changes to water dripping from a rock]
[Scene moves to a running river]
[Image changes to a sunset on mountains in timelapse]
[Image changes to a slow motion shot of a droplet of water falling and splashing on sand]
[Image changes to show the sand drawing in the water droplet]
[Scene moves to the sun rising in timelapse]
[Image changes to seedlings growing in timelapse]
[Image changes to the sun shining through clouds]
[Image changes to a drop of water soaking into the ground]
[Scene changes to mud drying up and cracking in timelapse]
[Image changes to a drop of water falling onto sand in slow motion]
[Image changes to show the sand absorbing water]
[Image changes to a seed absorbing water, expanding and beginning to grow in timelapse]
[Image changes to a seedling popping out of the ground in timelapse]
[Image changes to roots growing from a seed in timelapse]
[Scene moves underground to show the root growing longer in timelapse]
[Image changes to worms and insects crawling in the soil]
[Image changes to a mushroom growing in timelapse]
[Image returns to insects crawling in the soil]
[Image changes to a millipede moving across soil]
[Image changes to a slug moving across soil]
[Image returns to a mushroom growing in timelapse]
[Image changes to a worm moving through soil]
[Image changes to seedlings growing]
[Image returns to a worm moving through soil]
[Image changes to a Peripatus crawling across the ground]
[Image moves to a fern frond opening in timelapse]
[Image changes to an ant on a leaf]
[Image changes to an ant stuck on the sticky stem of a Sundew plant]
[Image changes to ants feeding on a fly]
[Image changes to ants exiting an ant mound]
[Image changes to a hopping mouse fossicking]
[Image changes to a close up of a spider’s head]
[Images moves to a caterpillar eating a green leaf]
[Image changes to mushrooms shrivelling up and dying in timelapse]
[Image changes to insects eating a fungus]
[Image returns to mushrooms shrivelling up and dying in timelapse]
[Image moves to insects devouring a mouse until only the skeleton is left and blades of grass grow up through the bones, in timelapse]
[Text appears: Music composed and conducted by Tony Gould]
[Text appears: Photographed and directed by Roger Seccombe]
[Text appears: Produced by Nick Alexander]
[Text appears: a CSIRO film Commonwealth scientific and industrial research organization, Australia. Copyright © 1982]
