DETAILS ON THE 6 FUNCTIONS OF SOILS

Weil, R.R and Brady, N.C. (2017). The Nature and Properties of Soil,
15th ed., Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, England.

1. SOILS AS SUPPORT FOR PLANT GROWTH

What a plant obtains from the soil in which its roots proliferate:
• Physical support
• Air
• Water
• Temperature moderation
• Protection from toxins
• Nutrient elements

• Physical support
The soil mass provides physical support, anchoring the root system so that the plant does not fall
over or blow away. Occasionally, strong wind or heavy snow does topple a plant whose root system has
been restricted by shallow or inhospitable soil conditions.

• Air
An important function of the soil is ventilation. Root respiration, like our own respiration, produces
carbon dioxide (CO2) and uses oxygen (O2), thus it is important to maintain the quantity and quality of
air by allowing CO2 to escape and fresh O2 to enter the root zone. This ventilation is accomplished via
networks of soil pores.

• Water
An equally important function of soil pores is to absorb water and hold it where it can be used by
plant roots. If plant leaves are exposed to sunlight, the plant requires a continuous stream of water to
use in cooling, nutrient transport, turgor maintenance, and photosynthesis. Since plants use water
continuously, the water-holding capacity of soils is essential for plant survival.

In places where it rains only occasionally, a deep

soil may store enough water to allow plants to
survive long periods without rain.

In this picture (from Weil and Bradley, 2017), the

area was not able to get rains for several month,
however, the tree still gets its waters from
previous rainfall that were stored deep in soils
buried deep into the ground.
• Temperature moderation
The soil moderates temperature fluctuations. If you dig into the garden soil (or even beach sand) on
a summer afternoon, you will feel that the soil at the surface is hotter. As you dig deeper, a few
centimeters below, the soil is much cooler.
The insulating properties of soil protect the deeper portion of the root system from extremes of hot
and cold that often occur at the soil surface.
For example, it is not unusual for the mid-afternoon temperature at the surface of bare soil to reach
40 °C, a condition lethal to most plant roots. Just a few centimeters deeper, however, the temperature
may be 10 °C cooler, allowing roots to function normally.

• Protection from toxins

Phytotoxic substances in soils may result from human activity (such as chemical spills or herbicide
application), or they may be produced by plant roots, by microorganisms, or by natural chemical
reactions.
Many soil managers consider it a function of a good soil to protect plants from such substances
- by ventilating gases,
- by decomposing,
- by adsorbing organic toxins, or
- by suppressing toxin-producing organisms.
At the same time, it is true that some microorganisms in soil produce organic, growth-stimulating
compounds. These substances, when taken up by plants in small amounts, may improve plant vigor.

• Nutrient elements
A fertile soil will provide a continuing supply of dissolved mineral nutrients in amounts and relative
proportions appropriate for optimal plant growth.

These nutrients include:

- metallic elements as potassium, calcium, iron, and copper,
- nonmetallic elements as nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and boron.

Roots take these elements out of the soil solution and the plant incorporates most of them into the
organic compounds that constitute its tissues.
Animals usually obtain their mineral nutrients from the soil, indirectly, by eating plants. Under some
circumstances, animals (including humans) satisfy their craving for minerals by ingesting soil directly
Plants also take up some elements that they do not appear to use, which is fortunate as animals do
require several elements that plants do not.
Of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements, 17 have been shown to be essential elements,
meaning that plants cannot grow and complete their life cycles without them.
Question: Can plants grow without soil?
Yes. Plants can be grown in nutrient solutions without any soil (a method termed hydroponics).
The plant-support functions of soils must be engineered into the system and maintained at a high cost
of time, energy, and management. In fact, imagining the expense of attempting to grow enough for 7
billion people in hydroponic greenhouses is a good way to comprehend the economic value of the food
provision ecosystem service provided by soils. Thus, although hydroponic production is feasible for high-
value plants on a small scale, production of the world’s food and fiber and maintenance of natural
ecosystems will always depend on millions of square kilometers of productive soils.

2. HOW SOILS REGULATE WATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY

There is much concern about the quality and quantity of the water in our rivers, lakes, and
underground aquifers.
To maintain or improve water quality, we must recognize that nearly every drop of water in our
rivers, lakes, estuaries, and aquifers has either traveled through the soil or flowed over its surface
(excluding the relatively minor quantity of precipitation that falls directly into bodies of fresh surface
water). Review the HYDROLOGIC CYCLE.
 Two scenarios will show how soil regulates water quality and quantity.
A heavy rain falling on the hills surrounding the river,
Scenario 1: The soil allows the rain to soak in, some of the water will be stored in the soil, some
used by the trees, and some will seep slowly down through the soil layers to the
groundwater, eventually entering the river over a period of months or years as base
flow. As it soaks through the upper layers of soil, contaminated water is purified and
cleansed by soil processes that remove many impurities and kill potential disease
organisms.

Scenario 2: Contrast the preceding scenario with what would occur if the soil were so shallow or
impermeable that most of the rain could not penetrate the soil, but ran off the land
surface, scouring surface soil and debris as it sped toward the river. The result
would be a destructive flash flood of muddy contaminated water.

This comparison highlights how the nature and management of soils in a watershed will influence
the purity and amount of water finding its way to aquatic systems.
For those who live in rural homes, the purifying action of the soil (in a septic drain field) is the main
barrier that stands between what flushes down the toilet and the water running into the kitchen sink!

3. SOIL AS NATURE’S RECYCLING SYSTEM: How are raw materials recycled.

Soils have the capacity to assimilate great quantities of organic waste, turning it into beneficial soil
organic matter, converting the mineral nutrients in the waste to forms that can be utilized by plants and
animals, and returning the carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, where it again will become a
part of living organisms through plant photosynthesis.
Some soils can accumulate large amounts of carbon as soil organic matter, thus reducing the
concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and potentially mitigating global climate change.

What would a world be like without the recycling functions performed by soils?
Without reuse of nutrients, plants and animals would have run out of nourishment long ago. The
world would be covered with a layer, possibly hundreds of meters high, of plant and animal wastes and
corpses.

4. SOIL AS MODIFIER OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

As the soil “breathes” in and out it interacts in many ways with the Earth’s blanket of air. That is,
soils absorb oxygen and other gases such as methane, while they release gases such as carbon dioxide
and nitrous oxide. These gas exchanges between the soil and the atmosphere have a significant
influence on atmospheric composition and global climate change.
The evaporation of soil moisture is a major source of water vapor in the atmosphere, altering air
temperature, composition, and weather patterns.
In places where the soil is dry, poorly structured, and unvegetated, soil particles can be picked up by
winds and contribute great quantities of dust to the atmosphere, reducing visibility, increasing human
health hazards from breathing dirty air, and altering the temperature of the air and of the Earth itself.
Moist, well-vegetated, and structured soils can prevent such dust-laden air.
5. SOIL AS HABITAT
Soil is not a mere pile of broken rock and dead debris. A handful of soil may be home to billions of
organisms, belonging to thousands of species that act as predators, prey, producers, consumers, and
parasites. This complex community of organisms influences human well-being through many ecosystem
functions. Soils also influence human health directly, either beneficial or not.
Hidden from view in the world’s soils are communities of living organisms every bit as complex and
intrinsically valuable as their larger counterparts that roam the savannas, forests, and oceans of the
Earth. In fact, soils harbor a large part of the Earth’s genetic diversity. Soils, like air and water, are
important components of larger ecosystems. So, it is important to assure that soil quality is considered,
along with air quality and water quality, in discussions of environmental protection.

Question: How is it possible for such a diversity of organisms to live and interact in such a small space?
One explanation is the tremendous range of niches and habitats that exist in even a uniform-
appearing soil. Some pores of the soil will be filled with water in which organisms such as roundworms,
diatoms, rotifers, and bacteria swim. Tiny insects and mites may be crawling about in other larger pores
filled with moist air. Micro-zones of good aeration may be only millimeters from areas of anoxic
conditions. Different areas may be enriched with decaying organic materials; some places may be highly
acidic, some more basic. Temperature, too, may vary widely.

6. SOIL AS AN ENGINEERING MEDIUM

Soil is one of the earliest and the most widely used of building materials. Nearly half the people in
the world live in houses constructed from soil. Soil buildings vary from traditional African mud huts to
large centuries-old circular apartment houses in China to today’s environmentally friendly “rammed-
earth” buildings
We usually think of the soil as being firm and solid, a good base on which to build roads and all kinds
of structures. Unfortunately, some soils are not as stable as others.
Reliable construction on soils, and with soil materials, requires knowledge of the diversity of soil
properties. Designs for roadbeds or building foundations that work well in one location on one type of
soil may be inappropriate for another location with different soils. Working with natural soils or
excavated soil materials is not like working with concrete or steel.

Important Soil Properties needed when soil is used as base of any engineering infrastructures:
- bearing strength
- compressibility
- shear strength
- stability

These properties are much more variable and difficult to predict for soils than for manufactured building
materials. Acquiring the correct data and understanding how these properties influence soil behavior
are of great value to people planning land uses that involve construction or excavations.
Have you considered eating soil as part of your daily meals? Read on the box below. Do additional
research on this aspect of soil usage.

References:

Foth, H.D. (1990). Fundamentals of Soil Science, 8th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Canada.

Weil, R.R and Brady, N.C. (2017). The Nature and Properties of Soil, 15th ed., Pearson Education Limited,
Harlow, England.

White, R.E. (2006). Principles and Practice of Soil Science. The Soil as a Natural Resource, 4th ed.,
Blackwell Science Limited, Australia.