Did you know your life depends on soil?
Erm, I’ m pretty sure water and oxygen are quite important too? Ed
True, but I’ m not exaggerating! A lot of living things are grown in soil, and some of our food may be from animals who ate plants that grew in soil. Plants that grow in a specific area depend on the type of soil – and those plants affect both the amount and types of wildlife present.
SAVE OUR SOIL! Soil is formed through a geological process that takes hundreds of years! It is considered a non-renewable source, so it is really important we look after it.
Are you telling me the right soil will grow me a tiger?!
Not quite … climate and geography have a lot to do with it too, but on land, everything starts with soil.
When you pick up a handful of soil, you’ ll probably notice some moving stuff. These are invertebrates( creatures without a backbone) like worms, beetles, millipedes and jumpy things called springtails. Stones and bits of plants are also easy to spot. But if you use a magnifier, you’ ll find tiny eight-legged mites, little worm-like things called nematodes, and smaller pieces of dead things.
Using special stains and a microscope, you can suddenly see thousands of microorganisms, including the thread-like growth of fungi and oodles of tiny single-celled bacteria, algae and protozoa. We think that around half of Earth’ s species live in the soil and just one teaspoon of healthy soil contains more individual organisms than there are people on Earth!
Healthy soil? What’ s that?
It contains lots of organic matter( decaying living things and their poo) which holds nutrients and water for healthy plant growth. These fragments also provide both a habitat and food source for microorganisms, which share nutrients with plant roots in the rhizosphere( rhizo means root). That leads to healthier plant growth, reduced soil erosion and increased carbon storage( reducing the impact of climate change).
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A MEDICAL MARVEL
Over 70 per cent of medical antibiotics come from compounds made by soil bacteria.