Leitner Raphaela at 22:20, 1 May 2025

2025-05-01T22:20:39Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:20, 1 May 2025
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	This could change how we understand recovery and restoration—not as something we control, but as something we can learn to notice and support.		This could change how we understand recovery and restoration—not as something we control, but as something we can learn to notice and support.

	'''Methodology'''		=== '''Methodology''' ===

	- Soil sampling (for fungal spore presence, pH, heavy metal content)		- Soil sampling (for fungal spore presence, pH, heavy metal content)

	- observational notes and photographs on behavioral patterns and co-occurrences		- observational notes and photographs on behavioral patterns and co-occurrences

			=== '''Literature''' ===
	'''Literature'''

	Cowden, C., Willis, S., & Shefferson, R. (2010). Mycorrhizal Species Dominate the Soil-Fungal Community in Estonian Oil Shale-Ash Hills. ''95th ESA Annual Convention 2010.'' Georgia: Odum School of Ecology.		Cowden, C., Willis, S., & Shefferson, R. (2010). Mycorrhizal Species Dominate the Soil-Fungal Community in Estonian Oil Shale-Ash Hills. ''95th ESA Annual Convention 2010.'' Georgia: Odum School of Ecology.

Leitner Raphaela at 22:20, 1 May 2025

2025-05-01T22:20:03Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:20, 1 May 2025
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	~~Upload will happen~~ on the 01.05.		=== '''Background Information''' ===
			In North-East Estonia, the oil shale industry has created huge waste landscapes, including ash hills and semi-coke dumps. These artificial mountains are the result of burning oil shale for energy, leaving behind toxic and nutrient-poor soil. Although the nutrient components of the soil were once too harsh for plants to grow, some life has started to return. (Rare) orchids, fungi, and ruderal species are the first to colonize disturbed lands. Going back to the idea – “Disturbance is not just an end: it is also a beginning. (Tsing, 2021)” - these places are no longer just ruins, but they are slowly transforming into new types of ecosystems.

			=== '''Main Focus of Fieldwork''' ===

			* How do species like orchids and fungi create “interspecies bodies” or relationships? What other relationships are there to discover?

			* What power in improving soil-health do ruderal species have?

			* And what impact do human inventions (eg. planting trees) on recovering the soil have if even possible?

			In this project, I would like to explores how fungi, orchids, and ruderal species act as “interspecies bodies” that reclaim toxic anthropogenic landscapes.

			I am interested in tracing the story of the early colonizers of ash hills - especially orchids - and their symbiotic reliance on mycorrhizal fungi in extreme, nutrient-poor soils. Orchids can only grow with the help of special fungi that live in the soil of semi-coke mountains. These fungi help the orchids get nutrients and survive in poor soil. I would like to dive deeper in how these organisms together enable life in toxic terrains through cooperation, stress-tolerance, and adaptive rooting in waste ecologies. Ruderal plants, often dismissed as weeds, are seen and understood as valuable species, that open the ash-mountains (semi-coke dumps) to others and create livable conditions.

			Guided by Tsing’s notion of “interspecies bodies” and “unintentional design,” I would like to uncover how these organisms do not merely survive but collaborate in the re-composition of elemental flows under hostile conditions.

			* What kinds of life can take root in ash and semi-coke?

			* How do fungal and plant bodies come together to form ecological infrastructures?

			* How might human attempts at reclamation (e.g., planting specific trees) disrupt or assist this fragile collaboration?

			By tracing these multispecies entanglements, the project aims to reimagine the ash mountains not as scars, but as evolving, speculative ecologies of survival, mutual aid, and regeneration.

			This could change how we understand recovery and restoration—not as something we control, but as something we can learn to notice and support.

			'''Methodology'''

			- Soil sampling (for fungal spore presence, pH, heavy metal content)

			- observational notes and photographs on behavioral patterns and co-occurrences


			'''Literature'''

			Cowden, C., Willis, S., & Shefferson, R. (2010). Mycorrhizal Species Dominate the Soil-Fungal Community in Estonian Oil Shale-Ash Hills. ''95th ESA Annual Convention 2010.'' Georgia: Odum School of Ecology.

			Pae, T., Luud, A., & Sepp, M. (2005). ARTIFICIAL MOUNTAINS IN NORTH-EAST ESTONIA: MONUMENTAL DUMPS OF ASH AND SEMI-COKE. ''Oil Shale Vol. 22, No.3'', S. 333-343.

			Tsing, A. L. (2021). On Anthropogenic Landscapes (Unintentional design in the anthropocene). In N. N. Disnovation.org, ''A Bestiary Of The Anthropocene'' (S. 256). Set Margins.

			Vaht, R., Pensa, M., Sepp, M., Luud, A., Karu, H., & Elvisto, T. (2010). Assessment of vegetation performance on semicoke dumps of Kohtla-Järve oil shale industry, Estonia. ''Estonian Journal of Ecology'' , S. 3-18.

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GMU:Re-enchanting the field/Raphaela Leitner - Revision history

Leitner Raphaela at 22:20, 1 May 2025

Leitner Raphaela at 22:20, 1 May 2025

Leitner Raphaela: Created page with "Upload will happen on the 01.05."