Here are three ways to conserve soil: 1. Plant cover crops or leave plant residue on top of soil to prevent erosion from wind and water. Plant roots and above-ground matter hold soil in place. 2. Practice no-till or minimum tillage farming techniques to limit soil disturbance from tilling or plowing. This preserves soil structure and prevents erosion. 3. Leave buffer strips along waterways and avoid overgrazing or over-application of fertilizers/pesticides. This helps maintain soil nutrients and protects soil from running off into water sources.

1. The Ground Beneath Our Feet
S6E5. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to
show how Earth’s surface is formed.
d. Ask questions to identify types of weathering, agents of erosion and transportation, and environments of deposition. (Clarification
statement: Environments of deposition include deltas, barrier islands, beaches, marshes, and rivers.)
h. Plan and carry out an investigation to provide evidence
that soil is composed of layers of weathered rocks and
decomposed organic material.
S6E6. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the uses and
conservation of various natural resources and how they impact the Earth.
b. Design and evaluate solutions for sustaining the quality and supply of
natural resources such as water, soil, and air.

2. Directions
•Read each slide. Some
slides are just facts, look
for the bold and
underlined words to
complete the notes

3. Precious Soil
You step on it. You stomp on it. You walk all
over it. Soil doesn’t seem very precious. But
it is. Without soil, which is a mixture of
weathered rock and humus, there would be
no plants. Without plants, we would have no
food to eat and no oxygen to breathe. Soil is
very precious to our way of living. Some
people spend their entire careers studying
soil.
• Why don’t you give it a try?

4. Explain this quote after you
complete the notes
“The nation that destroys
its soil, destroys itself.”

5. What Is Soil Made Of?
Start Here (Copy on chart)

6. How is soil formed???
Soil is a MIXTURE of
•weathered rock/mineral pieces
•organic material (decayed plants and
animals—thanks to fungus, lichen & bacteria)
(called HUMUS)
•water and air
•. It may take hundreds to thousands
of years for one inch of soil to form.
• soil is NONrenewable because it takes thousands
of years to make

7. Read this: Soil begins to form
when bedrock is broken apart
into small pieces of minerals
(rock). The agents rain, ice,
wind, freezing, and thawing can
do this breaking. Chemical
changes can do this , to rock.

8. continue reading: Plants and animals that
live in small rock pieces help break
apart rocks. As plant roots grow down,
they pry apart rocks. Burrowing
animals, such as earthworms and ants,
create tunnels between rock pieces.
Some of these tunnels fill with air and
water. Water expands as it freezes,
further breaking apart the rocks.

9. Read: How Soil Forms

10. Humus becomes mixed with the
rock pieces. Finally, a material that
can be called soil is produced. Soil is
a mixture of tiny rock particles,
minerals, humus, water, and air. Soil
takes a long time to form. It may take
hundreds to thousands of years for
one inch of soil to form. So it’s
nonrenewable), so it needs to be
protected (conserved)

11. Bacteria and fungi also help create soil. They
decompose dead plants and animals for energy.
The leftover plant and animal matter is called
humus.

12. SOIL Texture
• Definition: the soil quality that is based on the
proportions of soil particles.
• Affects the soil’s consistency
– The soil’s ability to be worked and broken up for
farming
• Influences infiltration
– Ability of water to move through the soil
– Also known as percolation
Largest particle
Smallest particle

13. Soil Properties: Soil
Structure
O Definition: the arrangement of soil
particles
O Often one type of soil particles will
clump in one area, which can block
the flow of water through the soil
affecting soil moisture.

14. Soil Properties: Soil Fertility
ODefinition: Soil’s ability to hold
nutrients and to supply
nutrients to a plant
OSoils vary in the amount of
nutrients it contains. Plants
need nutrients (such as IRON)
to grow.

15. Soil Properties: Soil pH
O Soils can be acidic or basic pH scale
O Used to measure how acidic or basic a soil is and
ranges from 0 to 14.
O The midpoint 7 is neutral. Above 7= basic. Below
7= acidic.
O The pH of a soil influences how nutrients
dissolve in the soil.

16. Types of Soil
O Sorted by their properties:
~Texture or size of particle
~Structure or arrangement of
particle
~Fertility or ability to hold
and supply nutrients
Loam is soil — best rich soil — that is a
mix of sand, clay, and various organic
materials.

17. Food for thought:
Explain this cartoon!

18. The importance of soil
• Soil provides minerals and other
nutrients for plants.
• All animals get their energy from
plants, either by eating plants or by
eating animals that have eaten
plants.
• Soil stores water for plant use
• Soil also prevents water run off

19. Soils develop as a result of the interplay of 5 factors; Parent material,
climate, organisms, relief and time.
Parent material
Organisms: vegetation,
fauna and soil biota
Relief (landforms and
topography)
ClimateTime
Soil Forming Factors
SOIL
FORMING
FACTORS

20. Parent Material
This is the material from which the soil has
developed and can vary from solid rock to
deposits like alluvium and boulder clay. It has
been defined as ‘the initial state of the soil
system’.
Jenny H (1941) Factors of soil formation. McGraw-
Hill Book Co Inc pp281.
The parent material can
influence the soil in a number of ways:
• color
• texture
• structure
• mineral composition
• permeability/drainage
This soil has developed on Old Red Sandstone and
so has derived its distinctive color from its parent
material.

21. Climate
This is probably the most important factor
(soils produced from the same parent
material under different climates contrast).
Climate governs the rate and type of soil
formation and is also the main determinant
of vegetation distribution.
Soil climate has two major components;
moisture (precipitation) and temperature,
influencing evaporation. When precipitation
exceeds evaporation, leaching of the soil will
occur.
Temperature determines the rate of
reactions; chemical and biological decay and
so has an influence on weathering and
humification.

22. Organisms : vegetation, fauna and soil
microbes
Organisms influencing soil development range form
microscopic bacteria to large animals including man. Micro
organisms such as bacteria and fungi assist in the
decomposition of plant litter. This litter is mixed into the soil
by macro organisms (soil animals) such as worms and
beetles.
Soil horizons are less distinct when there is much soil
organism activity.
Higherplants influence the soil
in many ways. The nature of the soil
humus is determined by the vegetation
cover and resultant litter inputs. Roots
contribute dead roots to the soil, bind
soil particles together and can
redistribute and compress soil.

23. Relief (landforms and topography)
Relief is not static; it is a dynamic system (its study is called
geomorphology). Relief influences soil formation in several ways:
• It influences soil profile thickness i.e. as angle of slope
increases so does the erosion hazard
• it has an effect on climate which is also a soil forming factor
• gradient affects run-off, percolation and mass movement
• it influences aspect which creates microclimatic conditions
In this photograph soils are thin
on the glacially eroded rock
outcrops but are much deeper
on the raised beach deposits in
the foreground.

24. Time
This soil profile shows a recent soil in
Culbin Forest which has formed on sand
overlying an ancient buried profile
Recent soil
Buried soil
Soils develop very slowly. In Britain it
takes about 400 years for 10mm of soil to
develop.
Young soils retain many of the
characteristics of the parent material.
Over time they acquire other features
resulting from the addition of organic
matter and the activity of organisms.
The soils of Britain are relatively
young because they are largely post-
glacial.
An important feature of soils is that they
pass through a number of stages as they
develop, resulting in a deep profile with
many well differentiated horizons.

25. Uses of soil: How do Humans (people) use the land (soil)?
• Agriculture
• Development-Construction of homes,
stores, office buildings, etc.
• Mining-Removal of iron, copper, and coal

26. Harm to Soil: Damage and loss
• Soil can be damaged from overuse by
poor farming techniques or by over
grazing.
• Deforestation: Cutting large masses
of trees leaving bare forest land
• Overuse– soil loses its nutrients
• Overgrazing– animals eat (destroy) plants
and leave the soil bare and exposed
to erosion.

27. DEFORESTATION
clear cutting the trees

28. DEFORESTATION
clear cutting the trees

29. WHAT ABOUT THE ANIMALS?
Where and how will they live?

30. pasture

31. pasture

32. Over grazing

33. Over grazing leads to ???

34. Overgrazing

35. SOIL POLLUTION chemicals being
carried in water from field to river

36. Soil Movement: Erosion
• Erosion is the process by which wind,
water or gravity transport soil and
sediment from one location to
another.
• Plant roots anchor the soil and keep
it in place
• By taking care of the plants you also
take care of the soil.

37. EROSION

38. Leaching
• Wherever rainfall exceeds evaporation and
there is free downward movement of water
through the soil pore system, soluble
minerals are leached or removed from the
soil profile.
• Continual leaching tends to impoverish the
upper mineral horizons by removal of basic
cations (cations are ions having a a positive
electrical charge e.g. Ca2+).
• Leaching is most active in sandy
soils with high porosity and is least
in fine-textured soils such as clays
which have restricted pore spaces.
A soil with small soil peds or crumbs and
high porosity leading to free drainage and
active leaching

39. DUST BOWL wind erosion
When you are finished with your
notes go back to the soil food
diner.
Select any Dust bowl link to help
you answer the questions watch
the video clips, and look at the
images.

40. How do we SAVE OUR SOIL!
•Predict three ways that
soil can be conserved?