This matters, because without soil we cannot survive. As a result of such destructive practices, in Europe alone, around 70 percent of the soil is considered unhealthy. Similarly, the age-old practice of irrigation, when overdone, increases the volume of salt in the soil, damaging its biodiversity, water quality, and productivity. Tilling breaks up compacted ground, controls weeds, and incorporates organic matter, but we now understand how it also damages soil structure, dries out topsoil, and accelerates erosion. Excessive use of pesticides reduces vital biodiversity the addition of nitrogen fertilizer speeds up the breakdown of organic matter, starving the soil’s microbial populations.Įven the plow, often considered one of history’s great inventions, can be bad news for soil. The pesticides and fertilizers used to counter these problems come with significant drawbacks. Monoculture farming, where one crop is grown repeatedly on the same ground, drains the soil of specific nutrients and allows pests, pathogens, and diseases to thrive. The need to feed a growing population and drive greater efficiency has sacrificed natural balance for increased yields. Meanwhile, climate change continues to dry the ground: three-quarters of Spain is at risk of becoming desert.īut perhaps the biggest threat to soil is intensive farming. Pollution kills microbial life in the soil deforestation and development disturb soil structure making it vulnerable to erosion soil compaction associated with farming and urbanization squeezes the air out of the ground and prevents it from absorbing water. Soil degradation, where soil loses the physical, chemical, or biological qualities that support life, is a natural process but it is being accelerated by human activity. But human activity is destroying the balance and one-third of the world’s soil is already degraded. These range from loose sandy soils to waterlogged peats to the beautifully balanced loam that is so well suited to agriculture. The activity of these organisms, the type of rock particles, the volume of organic matter, and the proportion of air and water all combine to create hundreds of different types of soil. Worms are not alone in the ground, just a gram of dirt can contain as many as 50,000 species, all interacting with each other to keep their soil habitat healthy and productive. Healthy soil is a dynamic living ecosystem: a complex combination of minerals and organic matter containing air, water, and life. The reality is that it takes thousands of years to create an inch of fertile topsoil, but it can be destroyed in minutes. Topsoil is used to grow 95 percent of our food, and it is disappearing ten times faster than it is being replaced: America’s corn belt has already lost much of its topsoil, threatening livelihoods and communities as well as food supply. Only about 7.5 percent of the earth’s surface provides the soil we rely on for agriculture, and it is remarkably fragile. We might imagine soil as endless and indestructible: it is neither. So why is it that most of us take the earth beneath our feet for granted? Worms are critical to soil health, and without soil Planet Earth would be little more than a lifeless rock. Charles Darwin described earthworms as one of the most important creatures on Earth. A worm burrows its way through the dark earth, ingesting particles of soil and expelling nutrient-rich casts in a constant forage for food.
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