Chapter 3: "Librettising" ecology to create Lipote: An Interconnected Journey
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Context of the Research and Influences
3.3 Synopsis
3.4 Developing the Script
3.4.a Communication: Influence from the Science
3.4.b Exploring Different Worlds: Panarchy and Adaptive
3.4.c Soil
3.4.d The Fungal Network
3.4.e The Narrator
3.4.f The Humans
3.4.g The Rainforest
i. A Framework for the Rainforest
iii. Exploring the Rainforest through Cycles of Collaboration
3.4.h The Palm Tree Plantation
3.4.i Lipote as the Loner Tree and the "Fiery Edge"
3.4.j The Strangler Fig
3.4.k The Forest Garden (or Taungya) and the Marriage
3.6 Future Steps and Conclusion
3.4.c Soil
As this piece is entirely set underground I wanted to engage the text in deeper explorations of soil itself. I also felt that it was important to convey information within the piece about the various properties of soil, such as memory, an interface between worlds, the support for all life, a natural cleanser and a hugely biodiverse and bio rich landscape.
In particular the idea of soil as memory is very important within pedology, and is a recurrent theme in the libretto. Soil’s value as an ecological memory is described by Carvalho Nunes et al here:
One of the most important functions of the soil is to be living memory because its definition is closely associated with living organisms. In addition, when a community or ecosystem that forms part of the soil ceases to exist, some of its parts or properties may remain, leaving behind an ecological memory such as spores, seeds, and structures created as aggregates that contribute to shaping the replacement community. Decreasing the ecological memory of an ecosystem reduces resilience, which in the soil would, for example, increase its susceptibility to the degradation, installation, or expansion of desertification processes. (Carvalho Nunes et al., 2020: 229)
Soils can exist as a kind of archaeological record of past environments, as this soil memory is held over long periods of time23. Memory appears part of the opening narration: 'The ground itself holds an ancient knowledge, / permeating a memory longer than humans have known', (p.1, lines 15-16) and repeats as a trope through which to connect emotionally with the different types of soil in each location. After the storm in the rainforest and the destruction of the root and fungal system, the Rainforest describe their memories as 'now destroyed.'
The global state of soil is highly concerning. The recent reports show that we have lost ⅓ of our arable land as a result of climate change and intensive agricultural practices (at the current trend all of the world’s topsoil could be spoiled in 60 years) (Maximillian et al., 2019: 457). As mentioned in the quote above the process of soil degradation is often triggered from a reduction in ‘ecological memory’ which occurs when there is mass deforestation, forest fire, or the replacement of biodiverse regions with monocultures. One of the markers of a healthy and fertile soil is the heterogeneous texture, something which is destroyed in mass agricultural tilling processes. The homogeneity of the soil in the plantation, in relation to its texture and lack of diversity, is mentioned several times. It is mentioned by Lipote in the interlude (p. 17, lines 407-409): ' Our soil conquered, tilled / So evenly that now / There is nothing left to grip.' It is then again described by the King Durian in scene 6 (p. 19, lines 480-481): 'Rows and rows of replica trees / Rooted in lifeless soils', and the narrator in scene 7 (p. 23, line 548) ‘Replacing memories with uniformity’.
In Targulian and Bronnikova’s 2019 paper they gave a thorough account of the pedological descriptions that currently exist of soil as memory, with a focus on its importance as an interface between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere and pedosphere:
Thus, soil is a result of the interaction of planetary spheres. It is one of the components of geosystems that have mechanisms for recording and preserving information about the state of the environment. Moreover, it is one of a few components, for which a terminological, theoretical, and methodological basis for studying the mechanisms of information recording, accumulation, transformation in time, and interpretation has been developed. (Targulian & Bronnikova, 2019: online)
The important role that soils play in maintaining our atmosphere (through holding carbon and fixing nitrogen) and our waters (through filtration towards the water table) is referenced in the song to soil in the interlude before scene 6. I decided that as a main home and source of nutrients for the trees they would themselves hold the soil in high regard. Lipote sings this when at their most desperate. This moment makes use of a traditional theatrical device, the entr'acte, a small scene which takes place in front of the curtain while the scene change happens. This is usually a monologue or short comedic double act. In opera there is also often an aria for deep reflection. In this case it is the moment in which Lipote prays to the soil for help on their journey. They describes the soil as life giver and builder of worlds of all sizes (p. 17, lines 410-417): 'Soily substrate / Which built the air / Crafted life / From earth to sky / Archived layers of time / We live among each other, / Micro to mighty, / In your damp and musty scent'. Go to timecode 00:55:00 for a performance of this scene. Targulian and Bronnikova also remind us that soil memory is often also referred to as ‘soil archive’ which you can see referred to in the libretto above.
The ability of the soil to store carbon, and the loss of that due to the impact of the storm in scene 1, is referenced by the Rainforest at the start of scene 3 (p. 7, line 153-154): 'Alert! Carbon crossing blocked- / Barricaded soil-' . The role of soil as this organising interface is again directly referenced by the narrator in the final chorus (p. 25, lines 608-610): 'The land which filters our waters and airs, / The soils which feed the trees, / And the fungus which connects it all.'
Soil is a determining factor on the health and resilience of the flora within it, but also the plants themselves have an impact on the soil as well. In a 2018 paper about the effect of tree root systems on soils, it was found that soils around both living tree roots, and tree stumps with empty or filled in root channels, are significantly affected by these in both texture and chemical composition (Lukasz & Samonil), and that these impacts would remain in the soil indefinitely. They even stated that:
To sum up, the short-term effects . . . documented at the research sites developed and persisted for at least 100-300 years in relation to soil age (of magnitude of >103 years). These effects can be seen as progressive soil development (Johnson and Watson-Stegner 1987) that is probably irreversible until tree uprooting or serious human impact on the soil. (Lukasz & Samonil, 2018: online)
This kind of ‘serious human impact on the soil’ is therefore able to destroy hundreds or thousands of years of work which has led to balanced soils that support the plant and insect life, and many millions of microorganisms within it. Another 2019 paper by Kong et al. showed how the microbiota surrounding plant roots, which adds to the health of the soil and plants, is inherited by seeds and transferred to planting sites. This is partly why agricultural systems such as forest gardens, which foster plants from their growth as seedlings, are far more beneficial to the health of soils than monocultures with trees imported from nurseries. This type of forestry and the hugely bio rich landscape is described by the King Durian in the Forest Garden song (scene 6, p. 18, lines 431-446):
Forest Garden:
Our multistoried paradise
With walking caretakers
King Durian:
They clear the ground
Where saplings land
Cared for and named
Beneath their feet
With music and fruits
Among us they meet.
Forest Garden:
Our multistoried paradise
With walking caretakers
King Durian: Worms work to feed
The hungry earth
Interfacing death to birth
Fungal highways
Bacterial trains
Around each root - a cityscape
The immense ecological system in the soil is briefly described in a panic by the Forest Garden during the process of deforestation as below (p. 3, lines 493-497). These short lines reference the varied life forms and their systems as they are being destroyed.
Forest Garden:
Alert Alert!
Swinging branches - creatures flee.
Insects burrow deep to hide.
Fungal highways cut.
Arcades uprooted fast.
In scene 6’s Forest Garden Song the references to soil (and the fungal network) expand to the rhizome/rhizosphere of the trees, the roots and area surrounding them through which many chemicals and nutrients are exchanged: an interface between the many dimensions present in soil, e.g. hydropshere, biosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere (Cianfrani et al., 2018)(p. 18, line 446): 'Around each root - a cityscape.' Some key phrases such as ‘fungal highways’ and ‘bacterial trains’ (p. 18, lines 444 and 445) are mentioned reference to recent research (Cowan et al., 2022) which examined the root microbiome in tropical rainforests24. This paper found that the greater the diversity of species the more variation in microbial activity. At the end of scene 6 Lipote refers directly to the destroyed rhizome (p. 21, lines 516-519):
Lipote:
Forest Garden? Durian?
Fungal threads broken. Dug out.
A flattened rhizome.
No help to take home.