Soil functions
Soil is our life support system, it plays a vital role in the Earth’s ecosystem. Soil provides plants with foothold for their roots and holds the necessary nutrients for plants to grow; it filters the rainwater and regulates the discharge of excess rainwater, preventing flooding; it is capable of storing large amounts of organic carbon; it buffers against pollutants, thus protecting groundwater quality; it provides Man with some essential construction and manufacturing materials; it also presents a record of past environmental conditions.
Soil functions are general capabilities of soils that are important for various agricultural, environmental, nature protection, landscape architecture and urban applications.
Six key soil functions are:
- Food and other biomass production
- Environmental Interaction: storage, filtering, and transformation
- Biological habitat and gene pool
- Source of raw materials
- Physical and cultural heritage
- Platform for man-made structures: buildings, highways
