Why does soil matter?

There are many reasons why soils matter. The best known is that they enable plants to grow and we depend on plants for our food, forests and wild flowers. Farming and food production depend on soil. Soil has been cultivated for thousands of years to produce food. In the last 50 years, in particular, soils have been used to produce increasing amounts of food as the world population has increased at a very rapid rate. This increase in food production has been done with the help of added fertilizer, improved mechanisation and other techniques. In some parts of the world, for example Africa, poverty has prevented the use of these advanced techniques. This, combined with unreliable climatic conditions, means the soils cannot produce enough food to feed the population.

Soils together with climate are responsible for the major forests of the world. These forests are a source of timber, fuel and are home to a wide range of plants and animals. The wide range of soils and climate around the world give rise to a wide range of trees which are used for various purposes. One of the best known types of world forest is the tropical rainforest such as that found in the Amazon basin and in tropical Africa. Here the soil is amazingly able to keep this dense forest continuing year after year. Different climate and soil conditions such as those found in northern Europe give rise to the taiga forest, dominated by coniferous forest, rather poor soils, and much more limited plant and animal life. Only in desert areas does the soil and climate fail to produce notable forests.

Ecologically, soils are able to support a wonderful variety of flowering plants around the world. The type of soil present in a particular place is important in determining the types of flowers and shrubs that will grow there. There are plants that love and need chalk-rich soils, and those that do not; we have plants, such as heathers, that like wet, acid soils. We even have flowering plants in which the colour of the flower depends on the nature of the soil in which it is growing. Think of the beautiful range of flowers in the countryside and remember how the soil is the reason.