Soil overview

By fostering plant growth, soil also plays an important role in supporting animal biodiversity above ground, including wildlife and domesticated livestock. Moreover, the soil itself contains countless billions of diverse organisms that perform many vital functions such as the breakdown of plant debris, assimilating components from the atmosphere, aerating the soil, as well as the regulation of carbon, nutrient and hydrological cycles and the breakdown of toxic elements.

Soil is increasingly recognized for its fundamental role in the quality and availability of our water supply. As it is now recognized, soil – coupled with the landscape and its vegetation – is responsible for the distribution of all rainwater falling upon it and thus plays a key role with respect to the water cycle and supply.

Soil performs yet another critical function in controlling pollution (such as created through the misuse of pesticides and nitrates) by means of its absorption properties and thanks to the special way water moves through soil. Soil has always been important for the foundation platform of buildings, roads and other infrastructural constructions, while also providing their base materials.

Finally, soils are also gaining recognition for their key role in modifying and ameliorating the risks and effects of climate change through their regulation of dynamic biochemical processes and the exchange of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with the atmosphere. Soil organic matter (SOM) is one of the major pools of carbon in the biosphere and is important because of its role both as a driver of climatic change and as a response variable to climate change, as it is uniquely capable of acting both as a source and a carbon sink. Sustainable and climate resilient soil management plays an essential part in both the climate system and the terrestrial carbon balance. 

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