When you really come right down to it, it’s the little things that matter most; the small, too easily overlooked details that are the foundation upon which so much ultimately depends. In the oceans it’s the myriad forms of plankton that form the foundation of the food chains upon which so much of the life there depends, and on land it’s the mosses, fungi, lichen, and plants that live along the ground in the boundary layer between the earth and the atmosphere that likewise keep so many ecological systems running.
Naturalist Kem Luther calls these boundary layer organisms the stegnon, and in his new book Boundary Layer; Exploring the Genius Between Worlds from Oregon State University Press, he takes his readers on a journey into this often overlooked ecotone to discover the fascinating forms of life that live there – and as a result make it possible for so much else to live both above and below them.
