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The soil is home to a large proportion of the world's biodiversity.The links between soil organisms and soil functions are complex. The interconnectedness and complexity of this soil 'food web' means any appraisal of soil function must necessarily take into account interactions with the living communities that exist within the soil.
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 is in close cooperation with the broader biosphere. The maintenance of fertile soil is "one of the most vital ecological services the living world performs", and the "mineral and organic contents of soil must be replenished constantly as plants consume soil elements and pass them up the food chain". [3]
Irrigating soil above field capacity risks percolation losses. Wilting point describes the dry limit for growing plants. During growing season, soil moisture is unaffected by functional groups or specie richness. [63] Available water capacity is the amount of water held in a soil profile
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 ...
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 .
Calcareous (/ k æ l ˈ k ɛər i ə s /) is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.