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Soil has a crucial function in the global carbon cycle, with the global soil carbon pool estimated to be 2,500 gigatons. This is 3.3 times the amount of the atmospheric pool at 750 gigatons and 4.5 times the biotic pool at 560 gigatons.
Climate change is a leading factor in soil formation as well as in its development of chemical and physical properties. Therefore, changes in climate will impact the soil in many ways that are still are not fully understood, but changes in fertility, salinity, moisture. temperature, SOC, sequestration, aggregation etc. are predicted. [14]
Soil fauna affect soil formation and soil organic matter dynamically on many spatiotemporal scales. [5] Earthworms, ants and termites mix the soil as they burrow, significantly affecting soil formation. Earthworms ingest soil particles and organic residues, enhancing the availability of plant nutrients in the material that passes through and ...
Fungi are abundant in soil, but bacteria are more abundant. Fungi are important in the soil as food sources for other, larger organisms, pathogens, beneficial symbiotic relationships with plants or other organisms and soil health. Fungi can be split into species based primarily on the size, shape and color of their reproductive spores, which ...
Soil erosion occurs naturally, but human activities can greatly increase its severity. [28] Soil that is healthy is fertile and productive. [29] But soil erosion leads to a loss of topsoil, organic matter, and nutrients; it breaks down soil structure and decreases water storage capacity, reducing fertility and water availability to plant roots.
Although most changes have been documented in C and N pools, the priming effect can also be found in phosphorus and sulfur, as well as other nutrients. [12] Löhnis was the first to discover the priming effect phenomenon in 1926 through his studies of green manure decomposition and its effects on legume plants in soil. He noticed that when ...
In barley positive interaction was observed between copper and zinc, while in French beans the positive interaction occurred between nickel and zinc. Other researchers have studied the synergistic and antagonistic effects of soil conditions on lead, zinc, cadmium and copper in radish plants to develop predictive indicators for uptake like soil pH .
Soil piping is a particular form of soil erosion that occurs below the soil surface. [237] It causes levee and dam failure, as well as sink hole formation. Turbulent flow removes soil starting at the mouth of the seep flow and the subsoil erosion advances up-gradient. [ 238 ]