Soil a living organism

Subject: Environment/Agriculture

Context:

Professor Rattan Lal, the winner of this year’s World Food Prize spoke about importance of soil. Improving soil health not only boosts crop productivity, and makes farming profitable, but also mitigate the effects of climate change.

Concept:

• Soil is living because it has 25 per cent of all biodiversity.
• There are more species of organisms in the soil than there are aboveground.
• These organisms include everything from badgers and gophers to bacteria and viruses that are invisible to the naked eye.
• There are millions of organisms large and small that live in the soil and perform many important roles. It is important to maintain healthy soils by protecting soil from disturbance and organic matter loss.
• This ensures plenty of shelter and food for soil organisms, so that belowground diversity remains high and the soil microorganisms can provide us with ecosystem services.

Ecosystem services of soil

Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. They support directly or indirectly our survival and quality of life.

Per the 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), ecosystem services are “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems .It also delineated the four categories of ecosystem services—supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural

Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.

Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. Regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.Local climate and air quality: Carbon sequestration and storageModeration of extreme eventsWaste-water treatmentErosion prevention and maintenance of soil fertilityPollinationBiological control

Supporting Services: Habitats for species: Maintenance of genetic diversity

Cultural Services:Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design, Spiritual experience and sense of place: Recreation and mental and physical health: