Tag: soil as a natural resource

The wilting point is the minimum amount of water in the soil that a plant requires not to wilt; below this level, the plant cannot extract water and will permanently wilt.

The lithosphere serves as a source of minerals. The minerals supply the basic materials, required for making a variety of commodities, which man uses daily. The lithosphere is also the major source of fuels, such as coal, petroleum and a natural gas. 

Green manures are added to the soil to increase the productivity. Manures is of natural origin. The presence of nutrients in manure have a great role in increasing soil fertility. Biofertilizers are organisms which enrich the soil with nutrients e.g., Rhizobiumin symbiotic association with legume plants.

Lithosphere is the outer solid crust of Earth, which we call land. Its upper weathered part forms the soil.

 Deforestation is a direct cause of the erosion happening in tropical rain forests. Once plant cover is gone there are no roots to hold the soil in place during heavy tropical rains, which then wash away the topsoil and the nutrients necessary to regenerate future vegetation.

As rock becomes broken down through a variety of processes, such as weathering and erosion, the particles become ground smaller and smaller. The four main bases in a soil are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Iron and Potassium.

Explanation: Virtually all soil profiles are composed of a number of distinctive layers, termed horizons, interpretation of which is the key to understanding how the soil has formed.

Soil provides the physical medium, water, and mineral nutrients necessary for crop growth, making it the most fundamental component for agriculture.

Soil is considered a renewable resource because it is continuously formed through weathering and biological processes, although the rate of formation is slow.