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The Economic Times
The Economic Times
National
Team Global

Britain's army fenced off Salisbury Plain from industrial farming; 143 years on, plants came back fast, but the hidden soil microbes still haven't caught up

We usually think of land restoration as something we can see. Plant some wildflowers. Let the fields lie fallow. Watch for the green to return. Problem solved, right?

Not really. According to this landmark study published in The ISME Journal by researchers at the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology, the real recovery, the invisible underground kind, can take well beyond a century. And we may be seriously underestimating how long it takes.

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