Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Soil quality reflects how well a soil performs the functions of maintaining biodiversity and productivity, partitioning water and solute flow, filtering and buffering, nutrient cycling, and providing support for plants and other structures. Soil management has a major impact on soil quality. Soil quality relates to soil functions. Unlike water ...
Recycling in natural systems is one of the many ecosystem services that sustain and contribute to the well-being of human societies. [2] [3] [4] There is much overlap between the terms for the biogeochemical cycle and nutrient cycle. Most textbooks integrate the two and seem to treat them as synonymous terms. [5]
Soil degradation means that soil quality has diminished, which causes ecosystem functions to decline. [1] One third of the globe's land has degraded soil; [1] especially the tropics and subtropics with around 500 million hectares. [1] Soil degradation occurs due to physical, chemical, and biological forces. [5] These forces can be natural and ...
Soil microbial communities experience shifts in the diversity and composition during dehydration and rehydration cycles. [5] Soil moisture affects carbon cycling a phenomenon known as Birch effect. [6] [7] Temperature variations in soil are influenced by factors such as seasonality, environmental conditions, vegetation, and soil composition.
Soil represents one of the largest C sinks on Earth and is significant in the global carbon cycle and, therefore, for climate change mitigation. [6] Therefore, SOM/SOC dynamics and the capacity of soils to provide the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration through SOM management have received considerable attention.
The phrase "soil health" has largely replaced the older "soil quality". The primary difference between the two expressions is that soil quality was focused on individual traits within a functional group, as in "quality of soil for maize production" or "quality of soil for roadbed preparation" and so on.
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 ...
The soil bulk density of cultivated loam is about 1.1 to 1.4 g/cm 3 (for comparison water is 1.0 g/cm 3). [48] Contrary to particle density, soil bulk density is highly variable for a given soil, with a strong causal relationship with soil biological activity and management strategies. [ 49 ]