Search results tagged: Soil basics (15)

• Soil air

  Soil is an organism that breathes in and out. Pores not filled with water are filled with soil air: a mixture of 79% nitrogen, less than 20.6% oxygen, and generally more than 0.2% carbon dioxide.

• Soil minerals

  Minerals create the fundamental unit of soil architecture and are always soil-specific. Whether developed on sandy sediment, gravelly greywacke or porous pumice, the soil parent material and the environment in which a soil formed define its mineralogical composition.

• Humans and soil formation

  Ploughing, capping and covering, or contamination – soil remembers what it has once experienced. The memory of soil can reach back thousands of years, showing the traces and scars that natural processes and human activities have left behind.

• NZ soils in a nutshell

  A quick summary of the nature and properties of the soils in the New Zealand landscape of today.

• Soil water

  Soil needs water to function. Water in soil – also termed 'soil solution' – is the medium of transport for transferring nutrients, not only from one micro-site to another, but also from one mineral surface, plant root or soil microbe to another.

• Why bother about soils?

  A life without soil is impossible for us. But what 'roles' do soils actually play, and what do we gain from it all?

• Soil functions - the basics

  Soil provides ecological functions too important to be overlooked. Shelter for plants and animals, guardian of groundwater, source of our food, forage, and fibre and an archive of natural history and human heritage.

• Soil characteristics explained

  Three categories are commonly used to describe soil characteristics: chemical, physical and biological properties.

• Soil life

  Soil is teeming with life, but life in soil has somewhat remained the ‘deep ocean’ of the land: Little is known about the myriad organisms below ground that interact with soil and the wider environment.

• Soil profile

  Soil scientists tend to be very specific about the term 'soil horizon'. What is a 'soil horizon', and why are there so many different ones?

• Factors affecting soil formation

  Soil types varied at different scales and in response to different features of the overall landscape, such as vegetation and slope gradient.

• Ecosystem services

  Soil provides assets in the form of natural capital and ecosystem services that humans can access and use, usually free of charge.

• How do soils form?

  Understanding soil formation helps explain the diversity of soils and our own role in it.

• Get dirty

  You don’t have to be a soil scientist to get to know some of the essential characteristics of your own backyard soil. Anyone can get their hands dirty. With a few simple tests you can find out some interesting facts about your own soil.

• What exactly is 'soil'?

  Soil is (nearly) everywhere. But what does 'soil' actually consist of? Read about the various components and how they interact to create this amazing living substance.