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What does soil mean to humans? Soil and its importance

This is an irreplaceable element of the earth's surface, thanks to which the existence of plant and animal organisms (as well as microorganisms) becomes possible.

The interaction here is twofold: all living things would not exist without soil, but the soil itself is the result of the vital activity of these organisms. The soil makes up one of the planetary shells, which is commonly called the pedosphere.

Soil and the cycle of substances. Thanks to a specific mixture of soil elements, water, air and organic components, processes of processing, decomposition and transformation of many chemical compounds occur.

Thanks to this, it becomes possible to provide nutrition primarily for plants, and indirectly for animals and humans.

What is the importance of soil in nature?

The importance of soil in nature can be divided depending on its functions, the main of which are the following:

Concentration of energy reserves due to the provision of vital processes of plants and their implementation of photosynthesis (and therefore the formation of many minerals).
Creation of interaction between small and large cycles of substances - biological and geological.
Implementation of regulation of basic processes in the biosphere - regulation of the productivity of living organisms and the density of their population on the surface of the planet.
Participation in the interconnected process of adjusting atmospheric and hydrosphere compositions.
Ensuring normal life processes of terrestrial organisms.
Ecological role - participation in the functionality of the ecosystem and how component biogeocenosis.
An important role in the complex mechanisms of functioning and regulation of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and ethnosphere.

The importance of soil in human life

By its very existence, soil provides the opportunity for life for humans and other living organisms. Soil and people are inextricably linked with each other. No wonder the first effective technologies human civilization there were agriculture and livestock raising - that is, in fact, the maximum ways to use land resources.

Energy function

The soil creates conditions for plant life, which convert solar energy through photosynthesis into organic energy. Gradually, plants and other organic remains turn into coal, oil, gas, peat, thereby creating gigantic reservoirs of energy for human civilization.

Soil is an active participant in the cycle of organic and geological components. Such important structural elements as nitrogen, oxygen and carbon undergo transformation processes with the help of soil. Through complex transformations these chemical elements both released into the hydrosphere and atmosphere and become a source of organic synthesis for plants.

It is very important that the soil contains the mineral elements necessary for the normal functioning of the human body.

Natural regulation of populations

The accumulation of plant and animal organisms (as well as humans) always occurs in those areas of the planet where the soils are most fertile and the climate is favorable for life. And vice versa - soils with low fertility reduce the possibility of flora and fauna existing on them, thereby regulating the numbers of certain species and populations.

IN socially The role of soil is manifested in the fact that highly productive lands become the cause of territorial conflicts between countries and peoples.

Soil as a means of production

There is no doubt that soil is a valuable input for agricultural and livestock production. You should always take into account the importance of preserving the ecological state of the soil when carrying out various agricultural works and organizing types of production associated with the release of toxins and Wastewater V environment.

The future of life on the planet directly depends on the condition of the soil. In addition, soil is necessary to create housing and roads.

Protective function of the soil

Soil not only gives life, but also neutralizes substances dangerous to human and animal life. These include harmful chemical compounds, radioactive substances, and dangerous bacterial and viral pathogens. All these components accumulate in the soil and are gradually utilized.

However, the buffer margin of soil strength is not unlimited, and if it is constantly exceeded, it will cease to cope with its protective functions.

The soil cover of the Earth seems to us ordinary and eternally existing in nature. However, it is not. Nature created soil over 4.5 billion years! The basis for the formation of soil was the weathering products of rocks. Weathering is a complex process, the result of the combined action of many physical, chemical and biological factors. Video 37.

Conventionally, this is reflected in the formula:Rocks + Sun + air + water + living organisms = soil.

The process of soil formation never stops; of course, it continues today, but very slowly. The soil is in a constant process of development - formation or destruction. The duration of the process of formation of the Earth's soil cover is determined by many factors. It takes many millennia for soil to form. At the same time, irrational environmental management, which is detrimental to the soil, can destroy it in just a few years.

Do you think soil should be classified as a renewable or non-renewable natural resource? Is it possible to give a definite answer to this question?

The soil cover of the Earth provides life for plants, animals and humans. Soil is the most important component of all terrestrial ecological systems The Earth itself is a unique ecosystem (see topics 2 and 3 for more details). It communicates living organisms with the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere. Soil is an object of study for a separate science - soil science. The founder of soil science - an outstanding Russian scientist Vasily Vasilievich Dokuchaev. In St. Petersburg there is the Central Museum of Soil Science named after. V.V. Dokuchaev, which is one of the world's largest soil-ecological museums. In the museum you can get answers to the questions - What is soil? How is it formed? What grows on this soil? Who lives in this soil? The museum is the custodian of the richest collection of soils from various natural areas of the world.

Currently, scientists identify about one hundred types of soils. Why do they exist? different types soils?

The diversity of soils is, of course, associated with the diversity of conditions in which they were formed. Especially great importance have the climate and properties of the rocks from which the soil was formed.

Look at the picture and compare chernozem, sod-podzolic and tundra podzolic soils.

Do you know what types of soil are typical for your area? The soil has several layers connected to each other. Video 38. Among them, a distinction is made between bedrock, which undergoes weathering when it reaches the surface, and parent rock, from which the top layer of soil is formed. The underlying layer is called subsoil.

A unique property of soil is fertility. This is what ensures the existence of life on Earth. Soil fertility is determined by the content of humic substances (humus) in it. Humus is an accumulation of organic substances that were formed during the decay of plant and other living remains. It gives the soil a black color and ensures the growth and development of plants (i.e. life on Earth). The more humus in the soil, the more fertile it is. Most humus is found in chernozem soils. Video 39.

What is soil made of?

Approximately 50% of the space in the soil is occupied by air, filling the spaces between solid particles. About 45% of the soil mass comes from mineral substances, about 5% from organic substances. However, this information about the composition of the soil does not give a real idea of it.

We are accustomed to thinking that the soil is sparsely populated, that the bulk of living organisms are on its surface. But this is not true at all! For many animals it is a habitat. Everyone knows that earthworms, insect larvae, and insects themselves live in the soil. The soil serves as a nesting and housing site for many birds and other animals. Scientists' calculations show that the mass of living things in the soil is? masses of living forest inhabitants and more? masses of living steppe vegetation.

It has been established that the smaller the size of the organisms, the greater their number in the soil. Thus, in 1 m 3 of soil there are several tens of millions of worms and insects. And 1 gram of soil contains more than a million protozoan microorganisms. In general, scientists estimate the number of soil microorganisms on Earth to be approximately one billion tons!However, the importance of living organisms in soil processes is determined not by their mass, but by the enormous work they perform. Video 40.

We do not notice the work of soil bacteria, which continuously process dying parts of plants and other organisms. But if it stopped, the surface of the Earth would be littered with these remains. It’s hard to imagine what would happen to our beautiful Planet in just a hundred years! And earthworms, as you know, swallow soil when feeding. If about 140 thousand earthworms live in one hectare of soil, then their mass is 500 kg! This means that in one year they pass about ten tons of soil mass through their bodies!

What is the biosphere function of soil?

It is important to understand that to characterize a soil, it is not enough to know its composition. Scientific knowledge about soil is associated with the understanding that it is a complex natural body that has a certain structure. Let us remember: Soil is not a mechanical mixture of various substances. Soil is a complex system of interaction between minerals, organic substances and living organisms.

Thanks to their interaction, the soil performs its biosphere functions. But, we repeat, it is provided not only by the composition, but also by the structure of the soil.

Soil is made up of very fine particles. Microscopic organisms live in the film of water that envelops soil particles. Larger ones settle between soil particles, as in caves. Both of them form a single formation with the soil. Those that live on the surface of particles require air, and those that are inside the particles are able to live without air.

Nutrition, respiration and all other life processes of living organisms lead to many changes in the composition of the soil. At the same time, they involve substances contained in the air and dissolved in water into these processes, and they themselves release new substances formed in the process of their life activity.

Thus, the soil fulfills its biosphere function as the final link ensuring the creation of the entire biomass of the Planet.

Soil destruction can occur both as a result of natural processes and under the influence of irrational human actions.

Destruction of soil cover at a forest cutting site

Natural processes such as the advance of glaciers, volcanic eruptions, the formation of mountains, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or floods cannot but influence the state of the earth's crust and soil formation processes. But natural soil erosion (destruction and removal of the upper most fertile layers as a result of the action of water and wind) is a slow continuous process, at the same time as a new soil layer is formed. Unlike natural soil erosion, anthropogenic soil erosion is caused by human intervention in the natural environment. economic purposes. Irrational use of fields and pastures, deforestation, drainage of water bodies and the like - all this can destroy soil fertility in a very short time.

For example, the first settlers in America exploited the land so mercilessly that in 100 years they destroyed 20% of arable land. The soil is also destroyed due to waterlogging and desertification.

Bitter evidence of man's reckless exploitation of nature is the deserts of North Africa, the Baltic dunes, and eroded spaces in Australia, Pakistan, India and Canada. In the European part of our country alone there are up to 2 million ravines, which were formed mainly as a result of plowing the land. Every year, land loses a layer fertile soil, the creation of which nature spent thousands of years. Soil scientists call erosion a real tragedy.

Scientists believe that in order to maintain the ecological sustainability of the territory, each natural zone must maintain a certain ratio of arable land, pastures and forests. So, for example, in the forest-steppe, according to research by V.V. Dokuchaev, forests should be 10-18%. Now, due to excessive plowing, there are significantly fewer of them left.

According to modern data, humanity has already lost about 2 billion hectares of once fertile lands over the historical period, turning them into anthropogenic deserts. This is more than the area of all modern arable land in the world, amounting to 1.5 billion hectares. At the end of the twentieth century, it became obvious that soil degradation had acquired alarming proportions and was one of the main threats to the global environmental crisis. This is especially alarming given that, according to recent estimates, there are more than one billion hungry people in the world, that is, one in six people on the planet. This means that more people are now suffering from hunger and exhaustion than at any time in human history, while soil fertility and the area suitable for Agriculture lands are shrinking.

Do we ever think about what soil means in our lives? Perhaps very rarely. It seems to us that since soil is not a flower, not an insect, not an animal, what can happen to it? It will always lie under your feet. And at the same time, the world-famous ecologist Jean Pierre Dorsta said: “Soil is our most precious capital. The life and well-being of the entire complex of terrestrial biocenoses, natural and artificial, ultimately depends on the thin layer that forms the uppermost cover of the Earth.”

By underestimating the role of this greatest natural wealth, humanity jeopardizes its very existence.

Protecting the soil from destruction and combating a decrease in its fertility is the most important ecological problem, requiring the immediate attention of the international community.

Soil plays an important role in natural environment human habitation. First of all, because soil is the main means of agricultural production, belonging to the category of non-renewable natural resources. International declarations and agreements on environmental management issues - “World Conservation Strategy”, “World Soil Charter”, “Fundamentals of World Soil Policy” - affirm the importance of soil as the universal heritage of humanity, which should be rationally used and protected by all people of the Earth. Therefore, land use issues affect a complex of complex problems of a socio-economic nature: problems of land ownership, land legislation, land law, economic assessment lands and others, no less pressing...

In relation to the environment and humans, soil plays another important role - protective. Having the ability to absorb and retain various pollutants, including radionuclides, binding them chemically and physically, the soil thereby serves as a kind of filter that prevents the entry of these compounds into natural waters, plants, and further along the food chain into animal organisms and man. However, the possibilities of the soil in this regard are not limitless, and the level of technogenic pressure is increasing, so cases of dangerous soil contamination and subsequent poisoning of people are increasingly observed.
Human health is largely determined by the environment in which he is forced to live, and, as it turns out, soil plays an important role in this matter.

A number of diseases, the causes of which were previously unknown, are associated with certain soil conditions: an excess or deficiency of chemical elements, a violation of their ratio. Most widely famous examples From this area are diseases of the thyroid gland (goiter and Graves' disease), lesions of tooth enamel (caries and fluorosis), but their list is very large and continues to expand. Thus, there is information about the connection with the characteristics of the soil cover even of cancer. Recent studies by oncologists of the geographic distribution of stomach cancer have shown that in Tunisia, Egypt, and Afghanistan, the incidence of stomach cancer is significantly lower than in England, France, and the USA. Clinical studies have suggested an increased risk of this disease with insufficient magnesium in food (and the root cause is the chemical composition of the soils on which the plants grow), as well as a violation of the ratio in the soil solution between Ca, Mg, Mn ions. But even earlier, in the 60s of the last century, this pattern was established using the example of the Rostov region in working together soil scientists (Professor V.V. Akimtsev) and oncologists (Professor Z.M. Mitlin). They then published the book “Soils and Health”, which has long become a second-hand rarity.

Such diseases, according to the proposal of A.P. Vinogradov were called endemic, and territories with abnormal contents of chemical elements were called endemic provinces. V.V. Kowalski compiled a map of the biogeochemical zones and provinces of the USSR, which is presented as an illustration for this chapter. On it, he identified areas of distribution of a number of human and animal diseases caused by the properties of soils and waters. The solution to the origin of endemic diseases made it possible to develop measures to neutralize these phenomena.

Thus, many important issues in medicine and veterinary medicine cannot be resolved without taking into account the characteristics of the soil cover. And in 1986, within the framework of the International Society of Soil Sciences, it was organized working group"Soils and Geomedicine". This created the prerequisites for the identification of a special section in soil science - medical.

There is another area of human activity where taking into account the properties of soils and soil cover as a whole is absolutely necessary. Soils have different engineering and geological properties. The durability of wooden, metal and concrete structures, building foundations and their walls depends on the chemical composition of soil and groundwater and on the interaction between building materials and soil. The construction of roads and airfields is also based on the scientific principles of soil science, since the properties of soils determine the durability of coatings and these structures.

I hope I was able to convince you of the exceptional importance and uniqueness of “the most beautiful creation of the Almighty.” But current state Our country's soil cover is unsatisfactory and continues to deteriorate. To overcome further development soil degradation, including the famous Russian black soil - national treasure countries, measures are needed to protect them, and, above all, to improve land legislation. Developing a respectful attitude towards the soil should also play an important role, and this work must begin at school. The world community has already come to understand this situation. A project has been developed in the USA, one of the objectives of which is to unite scientists, school teachers and schoolchildren to include soil science in school programs. Unfortunately, in the homeland of soil science they are not yet thinking about this.

But it's never too late to learn. And you and I will learn the basics of this science not at our desks, but right in our own area.

Nature has endowed our world with soil, which is the fundamental criterion for the existence of all life on Earth. The world receives all its vital elements from the soil. That is why it needs to be protected, fertilized and freed from negative factors.

Soil in nature

Soil is one of the main components of the pedosphere - the geophysical shell of the planet.

The main function of soil, as a separate element in nature, is to support life as a whole. After all, it is precisely this that enables the existence, growth and reproduction of all living things - various microorganisms, ecosystems, plants, animals, and humans.

Soil is the basis for the formation of all vital elements - water and mineral nutrients in the form of chemical compounds.

Example: 1) plant in a pot with sand; 2) a plant in a pot with clay; 3) plant in a pot with soil

Soil is not only a necessary condition for life on Earth, but also a consequence of this life.

Soil is necessary for energy storage. It is in it that the processes of photosynthetic activity of the plant world take place. An example of such activity is the use by humans of huge amounts of fuel, food and feed formed in the bowels of the earth's cover. Coal, gas, oil, peat are all a consequence of photosynthetic processes.

Soil plays a big role in nature. It ensures the non-stop interaction of geological and small biological metabolism. The cycle of oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen occurs precisely through it. Through the soil, these elements enter the roots of plants, creating the necessary conditions for food chains. Thus, it regulates the composition of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Soil regulates various processes occurring in nature. One of them is the biosphere process. The role of soil in this process is to stabilize the density and productivity of all life on Earth.

Land resources in human life

Land resources are lands used by humans in economic activities.

Land resources are determined according to several criteria. The relief of a particular area plays a huge role. It may be convenient, inconvenient or unsuitable for a particular activity. Lowland areas are suitable for the cultivation of cultivated species or certain cultivation. Mountainous and hilly terrain is not convenient enough for irrigation or fertilization of plant species. And there are territories in which it is impossible to engage in any purposeful activity - dissected ravines, rocky hills, swamps and others.

The fertility of land resources is also important for the implementation human activity. A good soil cover will be able to nourish all plants with a sufficient amount of necessary substances and elements.

Soil and land resources play an important role in human life. It is from the soil that we get everything we need for life - food resources.

Land resources help in carrying out agricultural activities and forestry. The earth is also the source building materials, thanks to which modern structures are built.

Soil pollution

Almost every type of human activity causes enormous damage to the soil cover. Industrial waste of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, waste chemical industry, organic chemical compounds, inorganic chemical products - all this affects the quality of soil and land resources.

Enterprises that do not install cleaning filters emit sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust, ash, smoke, sulfates and nitrates into the atmosphere.

Enterprises engaged in simple organic synthesis leave their mark on the soil. They throw away technological waste that is not recycled in the natural environment.

The production of high molecular weight compounds affects the condition of the soil. When carrying out such activities, monomers, catalysts, solvents, stabilizers, plastics, rubber and other substances that pollute the soil environment are released into nature.

This is an irreplaceable element of the earth's surface, thanks to which the existence of plant and animal organisms (as well as microorganisms) becomes possible.

Thanks to this, it becomes possible to provide nutrition primarily for plants, and indirectly for animals and humans.

What is the importance of soil in nature?

The importance of soil in nature can be divided depending on its functions, the main of which are the following:

Concentration of energy reserves due to the provision of vital processes of plants and their implementation of photosynthesis (and therefore the formation of many minerals).
Creation of interaction between small and large cycles of substances - biological and geological.
Implementation of regulation of basic processes in the biosphere - regulation of the productivity of living organisms and the density of their population on the surface of the planet.
Participation in the interconnected process of adjusting atmospheric and hydrosphere compositions.
Ensuring normal life processes of terrestrial organisms.
Ecological role - participation in the functionality of the ecosystem and as an integral part of biogeocenosis.
An important role in the complex mechanisms of functioning and regulation of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and ethnosphere.

The importance of soil in human life

By its very existence, soil provides the opportunity for life for humans and other living organisms. Soil and people are inextricably linked with each other. It is not for nothing that the first effective technologies of human civilization were agriculture and animal husbandry - that is, in fact, the maximum ways to use land resources.

Energy function

Soil is an active participant in the cycle of organic and geological components. Such important structural elements as nitrogen, oxygen and carbon undergo transformation processes with the help of soil. Through complex transformations, these chemical elements are both released into the hydrosphere and atmosphere and become a source of organic synthesis for plants.

It is very important that the soil contains the mineral elements necessary for the normal functioning of the human body.

Natural regulation of populations

Socially, the role of soil is manifested in the fact that highly productive lands become the cause of territorial conflicts between countries and peoples.

Soil as a means of production

The future of life on the planet directly depends on the condition of the soil. In addition, soil is necessary to create housing and roads.

Protective function of the soil

However, the buffer margin of soil strength is not unlimited, and if it is constantly exceeded, it will cease to cope with its protective functions.