If you’re not a gardener, you may not have given much thought to soil before. Soil is quite fascinating though. A complex mix of water, air, minerals and the countless organisms which are decaying remnants of many things that were once alive. It is literally the skin of the planet and is absolutely crucial to supporting life on our planet.
Scientifically, soil is divided into different layers from the top down to bedrock and is called a soil profile. The layers are each referred to as horizons.
Soil can often be under threat from the practices of man, for example, intensive farming, the use of chemicals, water, land and air pollution. All of these factors will affect the soil and the ecosystem that it supports. The main reason soil becomes contaminated is due to man made waste which is full of chemicals not found naturally. When a Soil Remediation Company is required, consider soilfix.co.uk/
Soil has many vital functions in all ecosystems:
- Soil absorbs, releases and purifies most of the water in land terrain
- Supports the growth of all plant life
- Modifies the atmosphere by absorbing and emitting gases
- Acts as a habitat for many creatures that live in it and also bacteria and fungi
- Serves as an engineering tool for the building of foundations, roadbeds and any type of construction
- Acts as a great recycler, processing nutrients to be used over and over again
There are three main types of soil – clay, loamy and sandy. Loams are a mixture of clay, sand and silt and are the most fertile of soils. A small patch of this amazing substance can contain a billion living things including worms, mites, fungi and tens of thousands of bacteria.
