Thank you for participating! We received many great haikus for the contest. Here are the results:

The winning haiku

As the soil exhales
see the litter decompose,
breath of death feeds life

The next three most popular haikus

Moonlight on willow
Elk bugle in cold mountain air
Hunter sits silent

Trees turn red then grey.
What will the future bring for
forests born of fire?

Alpine microbes fed
A nitrogen smorgasbord
Darn you, Haber-Bosch!

More haikus in random order

Pikas getting hot
Hiding under the talus
Hikers help science

Desert Water Search
Nowhere to be found; baked rocks
dry equipment drowned

Lion tracks in snow
Alone in a burned forest
Okay, I’m done here

Soil bugs are famished!
most carbon is silent
apart from the theatrics

Decomposition
minerals can slow it, but
it’s getting hotter

A model of earth,
matter moves with sun, rain, time.
Taps pause, then resume

Summer is coming;
Plants are less, people are more,
It gets hot hot hot.

Senescence brings fuel
Enzymes release nutrients
New plants grow from old

climate is changing
adaptive capacity
species on the move

late monsoon parches
Tibetan alpine pastures
milk bucket half full

Oil yields to plant fuels
Still not without emissions
So I will count them

People watch crane flocks
Cranes in spring eat, unfazed
Two years in two lines

turtle lizard snake –
enable conservation
through monitoring

ice melting quickly
a young seal lost her playground
my window defrosts

A bonus haiku

Snowflakes falling down
White blanket covers houses
Tonight snowflakes shine