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Nutrients in the soil are taken up by the plant through its roots, and in particular its root hairs.To be taken up by a plant, a nutrient element must be located near the root surface; however, the supply of nutrients in contact with the root is rapidly depleted within a distance of ca. 2 mm. [14] There are three basic mechanisms whereby nutrient ions dissolved in the soil solution are brought ...
Most soil conditions across the world can provide plants adapted to that climate and soil with sufficient nutrition for a complete life cycle, without the addition of nutrients as fertilizer. However, if the soil is cropped it is necessary to artificially modify soil fertility through the addition of fertilizer to promote vigorous growth and ...
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.
The most notable examples are plant root-arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and legume-rhizobial symbioses, both of which greatly influence the ability of roots to uptake various nutrients from the soil. Some of these microbes cannot survive in the absence of the plant host ( obligate symbionts include viruses and some bacteria and fungi), which ...
Soil texture affects soil behaviour, in particular, its retention capacity for nutrients (e.g., cation exchange capacity) [8] and water. Sand and silt are the products of physical and chemical weathering of the parent rock ; [ 9 ] clay, on the other hand, is most often the product of the precipitation of the dissolved parent rock as a secondary ...
Soil fertility is a complex process that involves the constant cycling of nutrients between organic and inorganic forms. As plant material and animal wastes are decomposed by micro-organisms, they release inorganic nutrients to the soil solution, a process referred to as mineralization. Those nutrients may then undergo further transformations ...
An important nitrogen fixing symbiosis is that between Rhizobium and leguminous plants. [4] Rhizobium have been shown to contribute upwards of 300 kg N/ha/year in different leguminous plants, and their application to agricultural crops has been shown to increase crop height, seed germination, and nitrogen content within the plant. [ 5 ]
Soil has four important functions: as a medium for plant growth; as a means of water storage, supply, and purification; as a modifier of Earth's atmosphere; as a habitat for organisms; All of these functions, in their turn, modify the soil and its properties. Soil science has two basic branches of study: edaphology and pedology.