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The soil texture is determined by the relative proportions of the individual particles of sand, silt, and clay that make up the soil. A soil texture triangle plot is a visual representation of the proportions of sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample.
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil-litter interface.
For example, biological soil crusts are more dominated by green algae on more acidic and less salty soils, whereas cyanobacteria are more favored on alkaline and haline soils. Within a climate zone, the abundance of lichens and mosses in biological soil crusts generally increases with increasing clay and silt content and decreasing sand. Also ...
For example, while some studies have found that reductions in the abundance and presence of soil organisms results in the decline of multiple ecosystem functions, [28] others concluded that above-ground plant diversity alone is a better predictor of ecosystem multi-functionality than soil biodiversity. [29]
Soil salinity has localised and regional effects on biodiversity, ranging, for example, from changes in plant composition and survival at a local discharge site through to regional changes in water quality and aquatic life. While very saline soil is not preferred for growing crops, it is important to note that many crops can grow in more saline ...
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals [1] (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al 2 Si 2 O 5 4). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide .
Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand, silt, and clay. At the next larger scale, soil structures called peds or more commonly soil aggregates are created from the soil separates when iron oxides, carbonates, clay, silica and humus, coat particles and cause ...
The formation of the claypan relates to a lack of vegetation coverage, soil particle size distribution, and high rainfall. The lack of vegetation coverage makes soil become more susceptible to raindrop attacks. When the raindrops hit on bare soil with high energy, the fine sand, silt, and clay particles are re-arranged to plug all the pore spaces.