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Soil is the habitat for many organisms: the major part of known and unknown biodiversity is in the soil, in the form of earthworms, woodlice, millipedes, centipedes, snails, slugs, mites, springtails, enchytraeids, nematodes, protists), bacteria, archaea, fungi and algae; and most organisms living above ground have part of them or spend part of ...
The soil is home to a large proportion of the world's biodiversity.The links between soil organisms and soil functions are complex. The interconnectedness and complexity of this soil 'food web' means any appraisal of soil function must necessarily take into account interactions with the living communities that exist within the soil.
Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.
Soil ecology studies interactions among soil organisms, ... Soil supports a wide range of living organisms and is an essential component of terrestrial ecology.
Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong together, as in microbiota, plants and animals.
These are critical to operation of the soil carbon cycle. What follows refers to the remaining 85% of the soil organic matter - the non-living component. [18] As shown below, non-living organic matter in soils can be grouped into four distinct categories on the basis of size, behaviour and persistence. [19]
Organic matter is common throughout the ecosystem and is cycled through decomposition processes by soil microbial communities that are crucial for nutrient availability. [5] After degrading and reacting, it can move into soil and mainstream water via waterflow. Organic matter provides nutrition to living organisms.
Soil is in close cooperation with the broader biosphere. The maintenance of fertile soil is "one of the most vital ecological services the living world performs", and the "mineral and organic contents of soil must be replenished constantly as plants consume soil elements and pass them up the food chain". [3]