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Understanding Soil: The Foundation of Life on Earth and Its Importance

quinlan-dominguez avatar
quinlan-dominguez
22 diapositives · 349 Views · Nov 18, 2014

This lecture delves into the essential role that soil plays in our ecosystem, emphasizing its significance for plant growth, water retention, and nutrient provision. It features quotes from prominent figures like Jacob Bronowski and Franklin D. Roosevelt and highlights soil as a dynamic, living entity vital for sustaining life on Earth. The discussion covers soil's characteristics, the importance of safeguarding it, and how its health impacts the environment and human survival. Join us in appreciating soil's vital role in our lives and its necessity for a sustainable future.

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  1. Lecture Intro B • What is Soil? • “You will die but the carbon will not; its career does not end with you. It will return to the soil, and there a plant may take it up again in time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal life.” --Jacob Bronowski • “Standing on soil feels so much different than standing on city pavement; it lets you look inward and reflect…. It allows your inner life to grow. --Ricardo Montalban • “ Soil, like air, like water is a natural resource that we must protect in order to have a future on planet earth” --Terry Cooper • “The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt • All natural resources...are soil or derivatives of soil.  Farms, ranges, crops, and livestock, forests, irrigation water and even water power resolve themselves into questions of soil.  Soil is therefore the basic natural resource. --- Aldo Leopold • “Safeguarding our Soil” a 2010 strategy to prevent further degradation and enhance, restore, and ensure the resilience of our soils for the long term. --- Defra – England

  2. SOIL Definition 1 – • SOIL - The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants. • Sense the Soil – feel, smell, see, hear……

  3. SOIL Definition 2 • The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of:

  4. Factors • 1) climate (including water and temperature effect • 2) macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by • 3) relief, acting on • 4) parent material over a period of • 5) time.

  5. Soil – A Product • soil differs from the material from which it is derived (Parent Material) in many : • a) physical, • b) chemical, • c) biological, and • d) morphological properties and characteristics.

  6. Soil - the essence of life Darkle, darkle, little grain, I wonder how you entertain a thousand creatures microscopic. Grains like you from pole to tropic support land life upon this planet. I marvel at you, crumb of granite! (F.W. Hole, 1989)

  7. Soil does not equal DIRT

  8. Soils are Dynamic • the % air, % water, % organic matter will change with time and space. • The Soil Ecosystem = all parts of the soil, including biotic and abiotic. • Soils are important to life as we know it on this planet! • Without soil ……..

  9. USDA-NRCS

  10. USDA-NRCS

  11. USDA-NRCS

  12. USDA-NRCS

  13. USDA-NRCS

  14. Physical support of plants Provides water and air Provides essential elements Macro-nutrients = N – nitrogen P – phosphorus K – potassium Ca – calcium Mg – magnesium S – sulfur Micro-nutrients = boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), chloride (Cl), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo) zinc (Zn) Soils and Plant Growth

  15. USDA-NRCS

  16. Basic Soils Includes: • Understand soil variability • Study physical, chemical & biological properties • Relate soil characteristics to various land uses • Soils of the Week – Ten soils of Minnesota that you will become familiar with: First Soil = Clarion • Clarion = http://www.soils.umn.edu/academics/classes/soil2125/doc/clarinsw.htm

  17. Literature • Current scientific journals include: • Soil Science Society of America - SSSA Journal-The journal publishes papers interpreting the outcome of scholarly inquiry, investigation, modeling, or experimentation designed to develop new or revise existing concepts or techniques in any phase of soil science • Soil and Water Conservation -The Journal of Soil and Water Conservation is the Soil and Water Conservation Society's bi-monthly journal of applied research and conservation news.

  18. Soils determine the suitability of land for various uses; such as, housing developments, parks, golf courses, trails, ……..

  19. Wet Soils - difficult to use for many land uses due to high water table.

  20. Road cuts provide us a view of thesoil profile and the parentmaterial the soil developed from. This cut is through an area of very stony glacial till in northeast Minnesota. The soil shows very weak horizon development.

  21. The “Beautiful Soil Profile” “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This soil profile provides vivid contrasting colors and unique layering of the horizons. From this time forward: You will never again look at a road cut without looking for the soil “horizons”.

  22. The End "Soil is the hidden, secret friend, which is the root domain of lively darkness and silence." F.W. Hole