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Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, , water, and that together support the life of and Soil biology. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil. Soil consists of a solid collection of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a Porosity phase that holds Soil gas (the soil atmosphere) and a liquid phase that holds water and dissolved substances both organic and inorganic, in ionic or in molecular form (the soil solution). Accordingly, soil is a complex system three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases. Soil is a product of several factors: the influence of climate, terrain (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), organisms, and the soil's (original minerals) interacting over time. It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, Soil ecology regard soil as an ecosystem.
Most soils have a dry bulk density (density of soil taking into account voids when dry) between 1.1 and 1.6 g/cm3, though the soil particle density is much higher, in the range of 2.6 to 2.7 g/cm3. Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, although fossilized soils are preserved from as far back as the Archean.
Collectively the Earth's body of soil is called the pedosphere. The pedosphere interfaces with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. Soil has four important soil functions:
All of these functions, in their turn, modify the soil and its properties.
Soil science has two basic branches of study: edaphology and pedology. Edaphology studies the influence of soils on living things. Pedology focuses on the formation, description (morphology), and classification of soils in their natural environment. In engineering terms, soil is included in the broader concept of regolith, which also includes other loose material that lies above the bedrock, as can be found on the Moon and other celestial objects.
Soil acts as an engineering medium, a habitat for soil organisms, a recycling system for nutrients and , a regulator of water quality, a modifier of atmospheric composition, and a medium for plant growth, making it a critically important provider of ecosystem services. Since soil has a tremendous range of available Ecological niche and , it contains a prominent part of the Earth's genetic diversity. A gram of soil can contain billions of organisms, belonging to thousands of species, mostly microbial and largely still unexplored. Soil has a mean Prokaryote density of roughly 108 organisms per gram, whereas the ocean has no more than 107 prokaryotic organisms per milliliter (gram) of seawater. Organic carbon held in soil is eventually returned to the atmosphere through the process of respiration carried out by heterotrophic organisms, but a substantial part is retained in the soil in the form of soil organic matter; tillage usually increases the rate of soil respiration, leading to the depletion of soil organic matter. Since plant roots need oxygen, aeration is an important characteristic of soil. This ventilation can be accomplished via networks of interconnected soil pores, which also absorb and hold rainwater making it readily available for uptake by plants. Since plants require a nearly continuous supply of water, but most regions receive sporadic rainfall, the water-holding capacity of soils is vital for plant survival.
Soils can effectively remove impurities, kill disease agents, and degrade contaminants, this latter property being called natural attenuation. Typically, soils maintain a net absorption of oxygen and methane and undergo a net release of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Soils offer plants physical support, air, water, temperature moderation, nutrients, and protection from toxins. Soils provide readily available nutrients to plants and animals by converting dead organic matter into various nutrient forms. (2025). 9789251053669, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . ISBN 9789251053669
Given sufficient time, an undifferentiated soil will evolve a soil horizon that consists of two or more layers, referred to as . These differ in one or more properties such as in their Soil texture, structure, density, porosity, Viscosity, temperature, color, and reactivity. The horizons differ greatly in thickness and generally lack sharp boundaries; their development is dependent on the type of parent material, the processes that modify those parent materials, and the soil-forming factors that influence those processes. The biological influences on soil properties are strongest near the surface, while the geochemical influences on soil properties increase with depth. Mature soil profiles typically include three basic master horizons: A, B, and C. The solum normally includes the A and B horizons. The living component of the soil is largely confined to the solum, and is generally more prominent in the A horizon. It has been suggested that the pedon, a column of soil extending vertically from the surface to the underlying parent material and large enough to show the characteristics of all its horizons, could be subdivided in the humipedon (the living part, where most soil organisms are dwelling, corresponding to the humus form), the copedon (in intermediary position, where most weathering of minerals takes place) and the lithopedon (in contact with the subsoil).
The soil texture is determined by the relative proportions of the individual particles of sand, silt, and clay that make up the soil. plot is a visual representation of the proportions of sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample.]] The interaction of the individual mineral particles with organic matter, water, gases via Biotic component and abiotic processes causes those particles to flocculate (stick together) to form soil structure or . Where these aggregates can be identified, a soil can be said to be developed, and can be described further in terms of color, porosity, consistency, reaction (acidity), etc.
Water is a critical agent in soil development due to its involvement in the dissolution, precipitation, erosion, transport, and deposition of the materials of which a soil is composed. The mixture of water and dissolved or suspended materials that occupy the soil pore space is called the soil solution. Since soil water is never pure water, but contains hundreds of dissolved organic and mineral substances, it may be more accurately called the soil solution. Water is central to the dissolution, precipitation and leaching of minerals from the soil profile. Finally, water affects the type of vegetation that grows in a soil, which in turn affects the development of the soil, a complex feedback which is exemplified in the dynamics of banded vegetation patterns in semi-arid regions.
Soils supply with , most of which are held in place by particles of clay and organic matter () (2025). 9780132279383, Pearson. ISBN 9780132279383 The nutrients may be Adsorption on clay mineral surfaces, bound within clay minerals (absorbed), or bound within organic compounds as part of the living Soil organism or dead soil organic matter. These bound nutrients interact with soil water to Buffer solution the soil solution composition (attenuate changes in the soil solution) as soils wet up or dry out, as plants take up nutrients, as salts are leached, or as acids or alkalis are added.
Plant nutrient availability is affected by soil pH, which is a measure of the hydrogen ion activity in the soil solution. Soil pH is a function of many soil forming factors, and is generally lower (more acidic) where weathering is more advanced.
Most plant nutrients, with the exception of nitrogen, originate from the minerals that make up the soil parent material. Some nitrogen originates from rain as dilute nitric acid and ammonia, but most of the nitrogen is available in soils as a result of nitrogen fixation by bacteria. Once in the soil-plant system, most nutrients are recycled through living organisms, plant and microbial residues (soil organic matter), mineral-bound forms, and the soil solution. Both living soil organisms (microbes, animals and plant roots) and soil organic matter are of critical importance to this recycling, and thereby to soil formation and soil fertility. Microbial may release nutrients from minerals or organic matter for use by plants and other microorganisms, sequester (incorporate) them into living cells, or cause their loss from the soil by volatilisation (loss to the atmosphere as gases) or leaching.
An example of the development of a soil would begin with the weathering of lava flow bedrock, which would produce the purely mineral-based parent material from which the soil texture forms. Soil development would proceed most rapidly from bare rock of recent flows in a warm climate, under heavy and frequent rainfall. Under such conditions, plants (in a first stage nitrogen-fixing and cyanobacteria then epilithic higher plants) become established very quickly on lava, even though there is very little organic material. Basaltic minerals commonly weather relatively quickly, according to the Goldich dissolution series. The plants are supported by the porous rock as it is filled with nutrient-bearing water that carries minerals dissolved from the rocks. Crevasses and pockets, local topography of the rocks, would hold fine materials and harbour plant roots. The developing plant roots are associated with mineral-weathering Mycorrhiza that assist in breaking up the porous lava, and by these means organic matter and a finer mineral soil accumulate with time. Such initial stages of soil development have been described on volcanoes, inselbergs, and glacial moraines.
How soil formation proceeds is influenced by at least five classic factors that are intertwined in the evolution of a soil: parent material, climate, topography (relief), organisms, and time. When reordered to climate, relief, organisms, parent material, and time, they form the acronym CROPT.
Available water capacity is the amount of water held in a soil profile available to plants. As water content drops, plants have to work against increasing forces of adhesion and sorptivity to withdraw water. Irrigation scheduling avoids moisture stress by replenishing depleted water before stress is induced.
Capillary action is responsible for moving groundwater from wet regions of the soil to dry areas. Subirrigation designs (e.g., , sub-irrigated planters) rely on Capillary action to supply water to plant roots. Capillary action can result in an evaporative concentration of salts, causing land degradation through salination.
Soil moisture measurement—measuring the water content of the soil, as can be expressed in terms of volume or weight—can be based on in situ probes (e.g., capacitance probes, ), or remote sensing methods. Soil moisture measurement is an important factor in determining changes in soil activity.
Soil atmosphere is also the seat of emissions of volatiles other than carbon and nitrogen oxides from various soil organisms, e.g. roots, bacteria, fungi, animals. These volatiles are used as chemical cues, making soil atmosphere the seat of interaction networks playing a decisive role in the stability, dynamics and evolution of soil ecosystems. Biogenic soil volatile organic compounds are exchanged with the aboveground atmosphere, in which they are just 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than those from aboveground vegetation.
Humans can get some idea of the soil atmosphere through the well-known 'after-the-rain' scent, when infiltering rainwater flushes out the whole soil atmosphere after a drought period, or when soil is excavated, a bulk property attributed in a reductionist manner to particular biochemical compounds such as petrichor or geosmin.
The negative or positive charges on colloid particles make them able to hold cations or anions, respectively, to their surfaces. The charges result from four sources.
Cations held to the negatively charged colloids resist being washed downward by water and are at first out of reach of plant roots, thereby preserving the soil fertility in areas of moderate rainfall and low temperatures.
There is a hierarchy in the process of cation exchange on colloids, as cations differ in the strength of adsorption by the colloid and hence their ability to replace one another (ion exchange). If present in equal amounts in the soil water solution:
Al3+ replaces H+ replaces Ca2+ replaces Mg2+ replaces K+ same as replaces Na+
If one cation is added in large amounts, it may replace the others by the sheer force of its numbers. This is called law of mass action. This is largely what occurs with the addition of cationic Fertilizer (potash, lime).
As the soil solution becomes more acidic (low pH, meaning an abundance of H+), the other cations more weakly bound to colloids are pushed into solution as hydrogen ions occupy exchange sites (protonation). A low pH may cause the hydrogen of hydroxyl groups to be pulled into solution, leaving charged sites on the colloid available to be occupied by other cations. This Ionization of on the surface of soil colloids creates what is described as pH-dependent . Unlike permanent charges developed by isomorphous substitution, pH-dependent charges are variable and increase with increasing pH. Freed cations can be made available to plants but are also prone to be leached from the soil, possibly making the soil less fertile. Plants are able to excrete H+ into the soil through the synthesis of and by that means, change the pH of the soil near the root and push cations off the colloids, thus making those available to the plant.
Most of the soil's CEC occurs on clay and humus colloids, and the lack of those in hot, humid, wet climates (such as tropical rainforests), due to leaching and decomposition, respectively, explains the apparent sterility of tropical soils. Live plant roots also have some CEC, linked to their specific surface area.
| + Cation exchange capacity for soils; soil textures; soil colloids |
| 1.0 |
| 1.9 |
| 11.9 |
| 26.3 |
| 31.6 |
| 34.3 |
| 100.8 |
| 1–5 |
| 5–10 |
| 5–15 |
| 15–30 |
| over 30 |
| 0–3 |
| 3–15 |
| 25–40 |
| 60–100 |
| 80–150 |
| 100–300 |
Iron and aluminum hydroxide clays are able to exchange their hydroxide anions (OH−) for other anions. The order reflecting the strength of anion adhesion is as follows:
The amount of exchangeable anions is of a magnitude of tenths to a few milliequivalents per 100 g dry soil. As pH rises, there are relatively more hydroxyls, which will displace anions from the colloids and force them into solution and out of storage; hence AEC decreases with increasing pH (alkalinity).
At 25 °C an aqueous solution that has a pH of 3.5 has 10−3.5 moles H3O+ (hydronium ions) per litre of solution (and also 10−10.5 moles per litre OH−). A pH of 7, defined as neutral, has 10−7 moles of hydronium ions per litre of solution and also 10−7 moles of OH− per litre; since the two concentrations are equal, they are said to neutralise each other. A pH of 9.5 has 10−9.5 moles hydronium ions per litre of solution (and also 10−2.5 moles per litre OH−). A pH of 3.5 has one million times more hydronium ions per litre than a solution with pH of 9.5 ( or 106) and is more acidic.
The effect of pH on a soil is to remove from the soil or to make available certain ions. Soils with high acidity tend to have toxic amounts of aluminium and manganese. As a result of a trade-off between toxicity and requirement most nutrients are better available to plants at moderate pH, (2025). 9781845939953, CAB International. ISBN 9781845939953 although most minerals are more soluble in acid soils. Soil organisms are hindered by high acidity, and most agricultural crops do best with mineral soils of pH 6.5 and organic soils of pH 5.5. Given that at low pH toxic metals (e.g. cadmium, zinc, lead) are positively charged as cations and organic pollutants are in non-ionic form, thus both made more available to organisms, it has been suggested that plants, animals and microbes commonly living in acid soils are pre-adapted to every kind of pollution, whether of natural or human origin.
In high rainfall areas, soils tend to acidify as the basic cations are forced off the soil colloids by the mass action of hydronium ions from usual or unusual Acid rain against those attached to the colloids. High rainfall rates can then wash the nutrients out, leaving the soil inhabited only by those organisms which are particularly efficient to uptake nutrients in very acid conditions, like in tropical rainforests. Once the colloids are saturated with H3O+, the addition of any more hydronium ions or aluminum hydroxyl cations drives the pH even lower (more acidic) as the soil has been left with no buffering capacity. In areas of extreme rainfall and high temperatures, the clay and humus may be washed out, further reducing the buffering capacity of the soil. In low rainfall areas, unleached calcium pushes pH to 8.5 and with the addition of exchangeable sodium, soils may reach pH 10. Beyond a pH of 9, plant growth is reduced. High pH results in low micro-nutrient mobility, but water-soluble chelates of those nutrients can correct the deficit. Sodium can be reduced by the addition of gypsum (calcium sulphate) as calcium adheres to clay more tightly than does sodium causing sodium to be pushed into the soil water solution where it can be washed out by an abundance of water.
The addition of a small amount of highly basic aqueous ammonia to a soil will cause the ammonium to displace hydronium ions from the colloids, and the end product is water and colloidally fixed ammonium, but little permanent change overall in soil pH.
The addition of a small amount of lime, Ca(OH)2, will displace hydronium ions from the soil colloids, causing the fixation of calcium to colloids and the evolution of CO2 and water, with little permanent change in soil pH.
The above are examples of the buffering of soil pH. The general principal is that an increase in a particular cation in the soil water solution will cause that cation to be fixed to colloids (buffered) and a decrease in solution of that cation will cause it to be withdrawn from the colloid and moved into solution (buffered). The degree of buffering is often related to the CEC of the soil; the greater the CEC, the greater the buffering capacity of the soil.
Redox factors act on soil development, with redoximorphic color features providing critical information for soil interpretation. Understanding the redox gradient is important to managing carbon sequestration, bioremediation, wetland delineation, and soil-based microbial fuel cells.
| + Plant nutrients, their chemical symbols, and the ionic forms common in soils and available for plant uptake |
| CO2 (mostly through leaves) |
| H+, H2O (water) |
| O2−, OH−, , , CO2 |
| , (phosphates) |
| K+ |
| , (ammonium, nitrate) |
| Ca2+ |
| Fe2+, Fe3+ (ferrous, ferric) |
| Mg2+ |
| H3BO3, , |
| Mn2+ |
| Cu2+ |
| Zn2+ |
| (molybdate) |
| Cl− (chloride) |
Seventeen elements or nutrients are essential for plant growth and reproduction. They are carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), boron (B), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni) and chlorine (Cl). Nutrients required for plants to complete their life cycle are considered essential nutrients. Nutrients that enhance the growth of plants but are not necessary to complete the plant's life cycle are considered non-essential. Except for carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are supplied by carbon dioxide and water, and nitrogen, provided through nitrogen fixation, the nutrients derive originally from the mineral component of the soil. The law of the minimum expresses that when the available form of a nutrient is not in enough proportion in the soil solution, other nutrients cannot be taken up at an optimum rate by a plant. A particular nutrient ratio of the soil solution is thus mandatory for optimizing plant growth, a value which might differ from nutrient ratios calculated from plant composition.
Plant uptake of nutrients can only proceed when present in a plant-available form. In most situations, nutrients are absorbed in an Ionic compound form from (or together with) soil water. Although minerals are the origin of most nutrients, and the bulk of most nutrient elements in the soil is held in crystalline form within Primary mineral and secondary minerals, they weather too slowly to support rapid plant growth. For example, the application of finely ground minerals, feldspar and apatite, to soil seldom provides the necessary amounts of potassium and phosphorus at a rate sufficient for good plant growth, as most of the nutrients remain bound in the crystals of those minerals. However, plants are able to stimulate mineral weathering, and thus the availability of mineral-bound nutrients, through various processes, both direct (e.g. weathering agents, biogenic minerals) and indirect (e.g. mycorrhizal fungi, rhizosphere bacteria).
The nutrients adsorbed onto the surfaces of clay colloids and soil organic matter provide a more accessible reservoir of many plant nutrients (e.g., K, Ca, Mg, P, Zn). As plants absorb the nutrients from the soil water, the soluble pool is replenished from the surface-bound pool. The decomposition of soil organic matter by microorganisms is another mechanism whereby the soluble pool of nutrients is replenished – this is important for the supply of plant-available N, S, P, and B from soil.
Gram for gram, the capacity of humus to hold nutrients and water is far greater than that of clay minerals, most of the soil cation exchange capacity arising from charged carboxylic groups on organic matter. However, despite the remarkable capacity of humus to retain water once water-soaked, its high hydrophobicity decreases its wettability once dry. Small amounts of humus may remarkably increase the soil's capacity to promote plant growth.
A few percent of the soil organic matter, with small residence time, consists of the microbial biomass and metabolites of bacteria, , and Actinomycetia that work to break down the dead organic matter. Were it not for the action of these micro-organisms, the entire carbon dioxide part of the atmosphere would be sequestered as organic matter in the soil. However, in the same time soil microbes contribute to carbon sequestration in the topsoil through the formation of stable humus. In the aim to sequester more carbon in the soil for alleviating the greenhouse effect it would be more efficient in the long-term to stimulate humification than to decrease litter decomposition.
The main part of soil organic matter is a complex assemblage of small organic molecules, collectively called humus or humic substances. The use of these terms, which do not rely on a clear chemical classification, has been considered as obsolete. Other studies showed that the classical notion of molecule is not convenient for humus, which escaped most attempts done over two centuries to resolve it in unit components, but still is chemically distinct from polysaccharides, lignins and proteins.
Most living things in soils, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi, are dependent on organic matter for nutrients and/or energy. Soils have organic compounds in varying degrees of decomposition, the rate of which is dependent on the temperature, soil moisture, and aeration. Bacteria and fungi feed on the raw organic matter, which are fed upon by protozoa, which in turn are fed upon by nematodes, annelids and , themselves able to consume and transform raw or humified organic matter. This has been called the soil food web, through which all organic matter is processed as in a digestive system. Organic matter holds soils open, allowing the infiltration of air and water, and may hold as much as twice its weight in water. Many soils, including desert and rocky-gravel soils, have little or no organic matter. Soils that are all organic matter, such as peat (histosols), are infertile. In its earliest stage of decomposition, the original organic material is often called raw organic matter. The final stage of decomposition is called humus.
In grassland, much of the organic matter added to the soil is from the deep, fibrous, grass root systems. By contrast, tree leaves falling on the forest floor are the principal source of soil organic matter in the forest. Another difference is the frequent occurrence in the grasslands of fires that destroy large amounts of aboveground material but stimulate even greater contributions from roots. Also, the much greater acidity under any forests inhibits the action of certain soil organisms that otherwise would mix much of the surface litter into the mineral soil. As a result, the soils under grasslands generally develop a thicker A horizon with a deeper distribution of organic matter than in comparable soils under forests, which characteristically store most of their organic matter in the forest floor (O horizon) and thin A horizon.
and , which begin as raw organic matter, are important constituents of humus. After the death of plants, animals, and microbes, microbes begin to feed on the residues through their production of extra-cellular soil enzymes, resulting finally in the formation of humus. As the residues break down, only molecules made of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, assembled and stabilized by oxygen and , remain in the form of complex molecular assemblages collectively called humus. Humus is never pure in the soil, because it reacts with metals and clays to form complexes which further contribute to its stability and to soil structure. Although the structure of humus has in itself few nutrients (with the exception of constitutive metals such as calcium, iron and aluminum) it is able to attract and link, by weak bonds, cation and anion nutrients that can further be released into the soil solution in response to selective root uptake and changes in soil pH, a process of paramount importance for the maintenance of fertility in tropical soils.
Lignin is resistant to breakdown and accumulates within the soil. It also reacts with proteins, which further increases its resistance to decomposition, including enzymatic decomposition by microbes. and from plant matter have still more resistance to decomposition and persist in soils for thousand years, hence their use as tracers of past vegetation in buried soil layers. Clay soils often have higher organic contents that persist longer than soils without clay as the organic molecules adhere to and are stabilised by the clay. Proteins normally decompose readily, to the exception of scleroproteins, but when bound to clay particles they become more resistant to decomposition. As for other proteins clay particles absorb the enzymes exuded by microbes, decreasing enzyme activity while protecting extracellular enzymes from degradation. The addition of organic matter to clay soils can render that organic matter and any added nutrients inaccessible to plants and microbes for many years. A study showed increased soil fertility following the addition of mature compost to a clay soil. High soil tannin content can cause nitrogen to be sequestered as resistant tannin-protein complexes.
Humus formation is a process dependent on the amount of plant material added each year and the type of base soil. Both are affected by climate and the type of organisms present. Soils with humus can vary in nitrogen content but typically have 3 to 6 percent nitrogen. Raw organic matter, as a reserve of nitrogen and phosphorus, is a vital component affecting Fertile soil. Humus also absorbs water, and expands and shrinks between dry and wet states to a higher extent than clay, increasing soil porosity. Humus is less stable than the soil's mineral constituents, as it is reduced by microbial decomposition, and over time its concentration diminishes without the addition of new organic matter. However, humus in its most stable forms may persist over centuries if not millennia. Charcoal is a source of highly stable humus, called black carbon, which had been used traditionally to improve the fertility of nutrient-poor tropical soils. This very ancient practice, as ascertained in the genesis of Amazonian dark earths, has been renewed and became popular under the name of biochar. It has been suggested that biochar could be used to sequester more carbon in the fight against the greenhouse effect.
The exposure of parent material to favourable conditions produces mineral soils that are marginally suitable for plant growth, as is the case in eroded soils. The growth of vegetation results in the production of organic residues which fall on the ground as litter for plant aerial parts (leaf litter) or are directly produced belowground for subterranean plant organs (root litter), and then release dissolved organic matter. The remaining surficial organic layer, called the forest floor, produces a more active soil due to the effect of the organisms that live within it. Organisms colonise and break down organic materials, making available nutrients upon which other plants and animals can live. After sufficient time, humus moves downward and is deposited in a distinctive organic-mineral surface layer called the A horizon, in which organic matter is mixed with mineral matter through the activity of burrowing animals, a process called pedoturbation. This natural process does not go to completion in the presence of conditions detrimental to soil life such as strong acidity, cold climate or pollution, stemming in the accumulation of undecomposed organic matter within a single organic horizon overlying the mineral soil and in the juxtaposition of humified organic matter and mineral particles, without intimate mixing, in the underlying mineral horizons.
Soil material is also a critical component in mining, construction and landscape development (also called landscape architecture) industries. Soil serves as a foundation for most construction projects. The movement of massive volumes of soil can be involved in surface mining, road building and dam construction. Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using soil for external thermal mass against building walls. Many building materials are soil based. Loss of soil through urbanization is growing at a high rate in many areas and can be critical for the maintenance of subsistence agriculture.
Soil resources are critical to the environment, as well as to food and fibre production, producing 98.8% of food consumed by humans. Soil provides minerals and water to plants according to several processes involved in plant nutrition. Soil absorbs rainwater and releases it later, thus preventing floods and drought, flood regulation being one of the major ecosystem services provided by soil. Soil cleans water as it percolates through it. Soil is the habitat for many organisms: the major part of known and unknown biodiversity is in the soil, in the form of , woodlice, , , , , , , Enchytraeidae, , ), bacteria, archaea, Fungus and algae; and most organisms living above ground have part of them (plants) or spend part of their life cycle (e.g. insects) below-ground. Above-ground and below-ground biodiversities are tightly interconnected, making soil protection of paramount importance for any restoration or conservation plan.
The biological component of soil is an extremely important carbon sink since about 57% of the biotic content is carbon. Even in deserts, cyanobacteria, and form biological soil crusts which capture and sequester a significant amount of carbon by photosynthesis. Poor farming and grazing methods have degraded soils and released much of this sequestered carbon to the atmosphere. Restoring the world's soils could offset the effect of increases in greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming, while improving crop yields and reducing water needs.
Waste management often has a soil component. Septic drain fields treat septic tank effluent using Aerobic organism soil processes. Land application of waste water relies on soil biology to aerobically treat BOD. Alternatively, use soil for daily cover, isolating waste deposits from the atmosphere and preventing unpleasant smells. Composting is now widely used to treat aerobically solid domestic waste and dried effluents of . Although compost is not soil, biological processes taking place during composting are similar to those occurring during decomposition and humification of soil organic matter.
Organic soils, especially peat, serve as a significant fuel and horticulture resource. Peat soils are also commonly used for the sake of agriculture in Nordic countries, because peatland sites, when drained, provide fertile soils for food production. However, wide areas of peat production, such as rain-fed sphagnum , also called or , are now protected because of their patrimonial interest. As an example, Flow Country, covering 4,000 square kilometres of rolling expanse of blanket bogs in Scotland, is now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Under present-day global warming peat soils are thought to be involved in a self-reinforcing (positive feedback) process of increased emission of greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide) and increased temperature, a contention which is still under debate when replaced at field scale and including stimulated plant growth.
Geophagy is the practice of eating soil-like substances. Both animals and humans occasionally consume soil for medicinal, recreational, or religious purposes. It has been shown that some monkeys consume soil, together with their preferred food (tree foliage and fruits), in order to alleviate tannin toxicity.
Soils filter and purify water and affect its chemistry. Rain water and pooled water from , and percolate through the soil horizons and the upper Stratum, thus becoming groundwater. Pests () and , such as persistent organic pollutants (chlorinated , polychlorinated biphenyls), oils (), heavy metals (lead, zinc, cadmium), and excess nutrients (nitrates, , phosphates) are filtered out by the soil. Soil organisms metabolise them or immobilise them in their biomass and necromass, thereby incorporating them into stable humus. The physical integrity of soil is also a prerequisite for avoiding in rugged landscapes.
Microfiber from synthetic textiles are another type of plastic soil contamination, 100% of agricultural soil samples from southwestern China contained plastic particles, 92% of which were microfibres. Sources of microfibres likely included string or twine, as well as irrigation water in which clothes had been washed.
The application of biosolids from sewage sludge and compost can introduce microplastics to soils. This adds to the burden of microplastics from other sources (e.g. the atmosphere). Approximately half the sewage sludge in Europe and North America is applied to agricultural land. In Europe it has been estimated that for every million inhabitants 113 to 770 tonnes of microplastics are added to agricultural soils each year.
A serious and long-running water erosion problem occurs in China, on the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. From the Yellow River, over 1.6 billion tons of sediment flow each year into the ocean. The sediment originates primarily from water erosion (gully erosion) in the Loess Plateau region of northwest China.
Soil piping is a particular form of soil erosion that occurs below the soil surface. It causes levee and dam failure, as well as Sinkhole formation. Turbulent flow removes soil starting at the mouth of the seep flow and the subsoil erosion advances up-gradient. The term sand boil is used to describe the appearance of the discharging end of an active soil pipe.
Many farmers in tropical areas, however, struggle to retain organic matter and clay in the soils they work. In recent years, for example, productivity has declined and soil erosion has increased in the low-clay soils of northern Thailand, following the abandonment of shifting cultivation for a more permanent land use. Farmers initially responded by adding organic matter and clay from termite mound material, but this was Sustainability in the long-term because of rarefaction of termite mounds. Scientists experimented with adding bentonite, one of the smectite family of clays, to the soil. In field trials, conducted by scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in cooperation with Khon Kaen University and local farmers, this had the effect of helping retain water and nutrients. Supplementing the farmer's usual practice with a single application of of bentonite resulted in an average yield increase of 73%. Other studies showed that applying bentonite to degraded sandy soils reduced the risk of crop failure during drought years.
In 2008, three years after the initial trials, IWMI scientists conducted a survey among 250 farmers in northeast Thailand, half of whom had applied bentonite to their fields. The average improvement for those using the clay addition was 18% higher than for non-clay users. Using the clay had enabled some farmers to switch to growing vegetables, which need more fertile soil. This helped to increase their income. The researchers estimated that 200 farmers in northeast Thailand and 400 in Cambodia had adopted the use of clays, and that a further 20,000 farmers were introduced to the new technique.
If the soil is too high in clay or salts (e.g. saline sodic soil), adding gypsum, washed river sand and organic matter (e.g.municipal solid waste) will balance the composition.
Adding organic matter, like ramial chipped wood or compost, to soil which is depleted in nutrients and too high in sand will boost its quality and improve production.
Special mention must be made of the use of charcoal, and more generally biochar to improve nutrient-poor tropical soils, a process based on the higher fertility of anthropogenic pre-Columbian Amazonian Dark earth, also called Terra Preta de Índio, due to interesting physical and chemical properties of soil black carbon as a source of stable humus. However, the uncontrolled application of Charring waste products of all kinds may endanger soil life and human health.
Columella's Of husbandry, , advocated the use of lime and that clover and alfalfa (green manure) should be turned under, and was used by 15 generations (450 years) under the Roman Empire until its collapse. From the fall of Rome to the French Revolution, knowledge of soil and agriculture was passed on from parent to child and as a result, crop yields were low. During the European Middle Ages, Yahya Ibn al-'Awwam's handbook, with its emphasis on irrigation, guided the people of North Africa, Spain and the Middle East; a translation of this work was finally carried to the southwest of the United States when under Spanish influence. Olivier de Serres, considered the father of French agronomy, was the first to suggest the abandonment of fallowing and its replacement by hay meadows within . He also highlighted the importance of soil (the French terroir) in the management of . His famous book Le Théâtre d'Agriculture et mesnage des champs contributed to the rise of modern, sustainable agriculture and to the collapse of old agricultural practices such as soil amendment for crops by the lifting of forest litter and assarting, which ruined the soils of western Europe during the Middle Ages and even later on according to regions.
Experiments into what made plants grow first led to the idea that the ash left behind when plant matter was burned was the essential element but overlooked the role of nitrogen, which is not left on the ground after combustion, a belief which prevailed until the 19th century. In about 1635, the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont thought he had proved water to be the essential element from his famous five years' experiment with a willow tree grown with only the addition of rainwater. His conclusion came from the fact that the increase in the plant's weight had apparently been produced only by the addition of water, with no reduction in the soil's weight. John Woodward ( 1728) experimented with various types of water ranging from clean to muddy and found muddy water the best, and so he concluded that earthy matter was the essential element. Others concluded it was humus in the soil that passed some essence to the growing plant. Still others held that the vital growth principal was something passed from dead plants or animals to the new plants. At the start of the 18th century, Jethro Tull demonstrated that it was beneficial to cultivate (stir) the soil, but his opinion that the stirring made the fine parts of soil available for plant absorption was erroneous.
As chemistry developed, it was applied to the investigation of soil fertility. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier showed in about 1778 that plants and animals must Combustion oxygen internally to live. He was able to deduce that most of the weight of Van Helmont's willow tree derived from air. It was the French agriculturalist Jean-Baptiste Boussingault who by means of experimentation obtained evidence showing that the main sources of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen for plants were air and water, while nitrogen was taken from soil. Justus von Liebig in his book Organic chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology (published 1840), asserted that the chemicals in plants must have come from the soil and air and that to maintain soil fertility, the used minerals must be replaced. Liebig nevertheless believed the nitrogen was supplied from the air. The enrichment of soil with guano by the Incas was rediscovered in 1802, by Alexander von Humboldt. This led to its mining and that of Chilean nitrate and to its application to soil in the United States and Europe after 1840.
The work of Liebig was a revolution for agriculture, and so other investigators started experimentation based on it. In England John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert worked in the Rothamsted Experimental Station, founded by the former, and that plants took nitrogen from the soil, and that salts needed to be in an available state to be absorbed by plants. Their investigations also produced the superphosphate, consisting in the acid treatment of phosphate rock. This led to the invention and use of salts of potassium (K) and nitrogen (N) as . Ammonia generated by the production of coke was recovered and used as fertiliser. Finally, the chemical basis of nutrients delivered to the soil in manure was understood and in the mid-19th century chemical fertilisers were applied. However, the dynamic interaction of soil and its life forms was still not understood.
In 1856, J. Thomas Way discovered that ammonia contained in fertilisers was transformed into nitrate, and twenty years later Robert Warington proved that this transformation was done by living organisms. In 1890 Sergei Winogradsky announced he had found the bacteria responsible for this transformation.
It was known that certain could take up nitrogen from the air and fix it to the soil but it took the development of bacteriology towards the end of the 19th century to lead to an understanding of the role played in nitrogen fixation by bacteria. The symbiosis of bacteria and leguminous roots, and the fixation of nitrogen by the bacteria, were simultaneously discovered by the German agronomist Hermann Hellriegel and the Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck.
Crop rotation, mechanisation, chemical and natural fertilisers led to a doubling of wheat yields in western Europe between 1800 and 1900.
In 1860, while in Mississippi, Eugene W. Hilgard (1833–1916) studied the relationship between rock material, climate, vegetation, and the type of soils that were developed. He realised that the soils were dynamic and considered the classification of soil types. His work was not continued. At about the same time, Friedrich Albert Fallou described soil profiles and related soil characteristics to their formation as part of his professional work evaluating forest and farmland for the principality of Saxony. His 1857 book, Anfangsgründe der Bodenkunde (First principles of soil science), established modern soil science. Contemporary with Fallou's work, and driven by the same need to accurately assess land for equitable taxation, Vasily Dokuchaev led a team of soil scientists in Russia who conducted an extensive survey of soils, observing that similar basic rocks, climate and vegetation types lead to similar soil layering and types, and established the concepts for soil classifications. Due to language barriers, the work of this team was not communicated to Western Europe until 1914 through a publication in German by Konstantin Glinka, a member of the Russian team.
Curtis F. Marbut, influenced by the work of the Russian team, translated Glinka's publication into English, and, as he was placed in charge of the U.S. National Cooperative Soil Survey, applied it to a national soil classification system.
(2025). 9789251054901, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251054901
Soil organic matter
The organic material in soil is made up of organic compounds and includes plant, animal and microbial material, both living and dead. A typical soil has a biomass composition of 70% microorganisms, 22% macrofauna, and 8% roots. The living component of an acre of soil may include 900 lb of earthworms, 2400 lb of fungi, 1500 lb of bacteria, 133 lb of protozoa and 890 lb of arthropods and algae.
Humus
Humus refers to organic matter that has been decomposed by soil microflora and fauna to the point where it is resistant to further breakdown. Humus usually constitutes only five percent of the soil or less by volume, but it is an essential source of nutrients and adds important textural qualities crucial to soil health and plant growth. Humus also feeds arthropods, and which further improve the soil. The end product, humus, is suspended in colloidal form in the soil solution and forms a weak acid that can attack silicate minerals by Chelation their iron and aluminum atoms. (1994). 9783642783562, Springer. ISBN 9783642783562 Humus has a high cation and anion exchange capacity that on a dry weight basis is many times greater than that of clay colloids. It also acts as a buffer, like clay, against changes in pH and soil moisture.
Climatological influence
The production, accumulation and degradation of organic matter are greatly dependent on climate. For example, when a thawing event occurs, the flux of with atmospheric gases is significantly influenced. Temperature, soil moisture and topography are the major factors affecting the accumulation of organic matter in soils. Organic matter tends to accumulate under wet or cold conditions where decomposer activity is impeded by low temperature or excess moisture which results in anaerobic conditions. Conversely, excessive rain and high temperatures of tropical climates enables rapid decomposition of organic matter and leaching of plant nutrients. Forest ecosystems on these soils rely on efficient recycling of nutrients and plant matter by the living plant and microbial biomass to maintain their productivity, a process which is disturbed by human activities. Excessive slope, in particular in the presence of cultivation for the sake of agriculture, may encourage the erosion of the top layer of soil which holds most of the raw organic material that would otherwise eventually become humus.
Plant residue
Cellulose and hemicellulose undergo fast decomposition by fungi and bacteria, with a half-life of 12–18 days in a temperate climate. Brown rot fungi can decompose the cellulose and hemicellulose, leaving the lignin and Phenols behind. Starch, which is an energy storage system for plants, undergoes fast decomposition by bacteria and fungi. Lignin consists of polymers composed of 500 to 600 units with a highly branched, Amorphous solid structure, linked to cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin in plant cell walls. Lignin undergoes very slow decomposition, mainly by white rot fungi and actinomycetes; its half-life under temperate conditions is about six months.
Horizons
A horizontal layer of the soil, whose physical features, composition and age are distinct from those above and beneath, is referred to as a soil horizon. The naming of a horizon is based on the type of material of which it is composed. Those materials reflect the duration of specific processes of soil formation. They are labelled using a shorthand notation of letters and numbers which describe the horizon in terms of its colour, size, texture, structure, consistency, root quantity, pH, voids, boundary characteristics and presence of nodules or . No soil profile has all the major horizons. Some, called entisols, may have only one horizon or are currently considered as having no horizon, in particular incipient soils from unreclaimed mining waste deposits, moraines, volcanic cones sand dunes or . Upper soil horizons may be lacking in truncated soils following wind or water ablation, with concomitant downslope burying of soil horizons, a natural process aggravated by agricultural practices such as tillage. The growth of trees is another source of disturbance, creating a micro-scale heterogeneity which is still visible in soil horizons once trees have died. By passing from a horizon to another, from the top to the bottom of the soil profile, one goes back in time, with past events registered in soil horizons like in sediment layers. Sampling pollen, testate amoebae and plant remains in soil horizons may help to reveal environmental changes (e.g. climate change, land use change) which occurred in the course of soil formation. Soil horizons can be dated by several methods such as radiocarbon, using pieces of charcoal provided they are of enough size to escape pedoturbation by earthworm activity and other mechanical disturbances. Fossil soil horizons from paleosols can be found within sedimentary rock sequences, allowing the study of past environments.
Classification
One of the first soil classification systems was developed by Russian scientist Vasily Dokuchaev around 1880. It was modified a number of times by American and European researchers and was developed into the system commonly used until the 1960s. It was based on the idea that soils have a particular morphology based on the materials and factors that form them. In the 1960s, a different classification system began to emerge which focused on soil morphology instead of parental materials and soil-forming factors. Since then, it has undergone further modifications. The World Reference Base for Soil Resources aims to establish an international reference base for soil classification.
Uses
Soil is used in agriculture, where it serves as the anchor and primary nutrient base for plants. The types of soil and available moisture determine the species of plants that can be cultivated. Agricultural soil science was the primeval domain of soil knowledge, long time before the advent of pedology in the 19th century. However, as demonstrated by aeroponics, aquaponics and hydroponics, soil material is not an absolute essential for agriculture, and soilless cropping systems have been claimed as the future of agriculture for an endless growing mankind.
Degradation
Land degradation is a human-induced or natural process which impairs the capacity of land to function. Soil degradation involves acidification, contamination, desertification, erosion or Soil salinity.
Acidification
Soil acidification is beneficial in the case of , but it degrades land when it lowers crop productivity, soil biological activity and increases soil vulnerability to contamination and erosion. Soils are initially acid and remain such when their parent materials are low in basic (calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium). On parent materials richer in weatherable minerals acidification occurs when basic cations are leached from the soil profile by rainfall or exported by the harvesting of forest or agricultural crops. Soil acidification is accelerated by the use of acid-forming nitrogenous fertilizers and by the effects of acid precipitation. Deforestation is another cause of soil acidification, mediated by increased leaching of soil nutrients in the absence of tree canopies.
Contamination
Soil contamination at low levels is often within a soil's capacity to treat and assimilate waste material. Soil biota can treat waste by transforming it, mainly through microbial Enzyme activity. Soil organic matter and soil minerals can adsorb the waste material and decrease its toxicity, although when in colloidal form they may transport the adsorbed contaminants to subsurface environments. Many waste treatment processes rely on this natural bioremediation capacity. Exceeding treatment capacity can damage soil biota and limit soil function. Derelict soils occur where industrial contamination or other development activity damages the soil to such a degree that the land cannot be used safely or productively. Remediation of derelict soil uses principles of geology, physics, chemistry and biology to degrade, attenuate, isolate or remove soil contaminants to restore soil functions and values. Techniques include leaching, air sparging, , phytoremediation, bioremediation and Monitored Natural Attenuation. An example of diffuse pollution with contaminants is copper accumulation in and to which are repeatedly applied, even in organic farming.
Desertification
Desertification, an environmental process of ecosystem degradation in arid and semi-arid regions, is often caused by badly adapted human activities such as overgrazing or excess harvesting of firewood. It is a common misconception that drought causes desertification. While droughts are common in Aridity and semiarid lands, well-managed lands can recover from drought when the rains return. Soil management tools include maintaining soil nutrient and organic matter levels, reduced tillage and increased cover. These practices help to control erosion and maintain productivity during periods when moisture is available. Continued land abuse during droughts, however, increases land degradation. Increased population and livestock pressure on accelerates desertification. It is now questioned whether present-day Climate change will favour or disfavour desertification, with contradictory reports about predicted rainfall trends associated with increased temperature, and strong discrepancies among regions, even in the same country.
Erosion
Erosion of soil is caused by water, wind, ice, and movement in response to gravity. More than one kind of erosion can occur simultaneously. Erosion is distinguished from weathering, since erosion also transports eroded soil away from its place of origin (soil in transit may be described as sediment). Erosion is an intrinsic natural process, but in many places it is greatly increased by human activity, especially unsuitable land use practices. These include agriculture activities which leave the soil bare during times of heavy rain or strong winds, overgrazing, deforestation, and improper construction activity. Improved management can limit erosion. Soil conservation techniques which are employed include changes of land use (such as replacing erosion-prone with grass or other soil-binding plants), changes to the timing or type of agricultural operations, terrace building, use of erosion-suppressing cover materials (including cover crops and other plants), limiting disturbance during construction, and avoiding construction during erosion-prone periods and in erosion-prone places such as steep slopes. Historically, one of the best examples of large-scale soil erosion due to unsuitable land-use practices is wind erosion (the so-called Dust Bowl) which ruined American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s, when immigrant farmers, encouraged by the federal government of both countries, settled and converted the original shortgrass prairie to agricultural crops and cattle ranching.
Salination
Soil salination is the accumulation of free to such an extent that it leads to degradation of the agricultural value of soils and vegetation. Consequences include corrosion damage, reduced plant growth, erosion due to loss of plant cover and soil structure, and water quality problems due to sedimentation. Salination occurs due to a combination of natural and human-caused processes. Arid conditions favour salt accumulation. This is especially apparent when soil parent material is saline. Irrigation of arid lands is especially problematic. All irrigation water has some level of salinity. Irrigation, especially when it involves leakage from canals and overirrigation in the field, often raises the underlying water table. Rapid salination occurs when the land surface is within the capillary fringe of saline groundwater. Soil salinity control involves watertable control and leaching model with higher levels of applied water in combination with tile drainage or another form of subsurface drainage. (1993). 9780160616235, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. . ISBN 9780160616235
Reclamation
Soils which contain high levels of particular clays with high swelling properties, such as , are often very fertile. For example, the smectite-rich Paddy field soils of Thailand's Central Thailand are among the most productive in the world. However, the overuse of mineral nitrogen and pesticides in Irrigation intensive rice production has endangered these soils, forcing farmers to implement integrated practices based on Cost Reduction Operating Principles.
History of studies and research
The history of the study of soil is intimately tied to humans' urgent need to provide food for themselves and forage for their animals. Throughout history, civilizations have prospered or declined as a function of the availability and productivity of their soils.
Studies of soil fertility
The Greek historian Xenophon (450–355 BCE) was the first to expound upon the merits of green-manuring crops: 'But then whatever weeds are upon the ground, being turned into earth, enrich the soil as much as dung.'
Studies of soil formation
Scientists who studied soil in connection with agricultural practices considered it mainly a static substrate. However, the soil is the result of evolution from more ancient geological materials under the action of biotic and abiotic processes. After studies of soil improvement commenced, other researchers began to study soil genesis and, as a result, soil types and classifications.
See also
Sources
Bibliography
Further reading
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