A story about the use of soil in life. The Importance of Soil in Human Life

The soil cover of the Earth seems to us ordinary and eternally existing in nature. However, it is not. Nature has been creating soil for 4.5 billion years! Weathering products formed the basis for the formation of soil 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 soil cover of the Earth is due to many factors. It takes thousands of years for soil to form. At the same time, irrational nature 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 an unambiguous answer to this question?

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

Currently, scientists distinguish about a hundred types of soils. Why are there different types of soils?

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

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

Do you know what soil types are typical for your area? The soil has several layers connected to each other. Video 38. Among them, there are bedrock, which is subject to weathering when it comes to the surface, and parent rock, from which the topsoil is formed. The underlying layer is called the subsoil.

The unique property of the soil is fertility. It is what ensures the existence of life on Earth. Soil fertility is due to 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 things. 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 of the 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 gaps between solid particles. About 45% of the mass of the soil falls on the share of minerals, about 5% - on the share of organic substances. However, these data on the composition of the soil do not give a real picture of it.

We are accustomed to thinking that the soil is sparsely populated, that the bulk of living organisms are on its surface. But that's not the case 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 dwelling place for many birds and other animals. Calculations of scientists show that the mass of living things in the soil is? masses of living inhabitants of forests and more? masses of living steppe vegetation.

It has been established that the smaller the size of organisms, the greater their number in the soil. So, 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 of the simplest microorganisms. In general, the number soil microorganisms on Earth, scientists estimate at about one billion tons!However, the significance of living organisms in soil processes is determined not by their mass, but by the enormous work that they perform. Video 40.

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

What is the biospheric function of the soil?

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

Thanks to their interaction, the soil performs its biospheric 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 small particles. Microscopic organisms live in a film of water enveloping soil particles. Larger ones settle between soil particles, as in caves. Both those and others make up a single formation with the soil. Those that live on the surface of the particles need 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 in these processes substances contained in the air and dissolved in water, and they themselves release new substances formed in the course of their vital activity.

Thus, the soil performs its biospheric function as the final link that ensures 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 the soil cover at the site of logging

Such natural processes as the onset of glaciers, volcanic eruptions, the formation of mountains, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or floods cannot but affect the state of the earth's crust and the processes of soil formation. But natural soil erosion (destruction and demolition 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, anthropogenic soil erosion is caused by human intervention in the natural environment in economic purposes. Irrational use fields and pastures, deforestation, drainage of reservoirs 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, 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. Only in the European part of our country there are up to 2 million ravines, which were formed mainly as a result of plowing the land. Every year, land loses a layer of fertile soil, the creation of which nature has spent thousands of years. Soil scientists call erosion a real tragedy.

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

According to modern data, mankind has already lost about 2 billion hectares of once fertile lands during the historical period, turning them into anthropogenic deserts. This is more than the area of ​​all modern arable land in the world, which is 1.5 billion hectares. At the end of the 20th century, it became obvious that soil degradation has become rampant and is one of the main threats to the global environmental crisis. This is especially worrying when you consider that, according to the latest 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 malnutrition than at any time in the history of mankind, while the fertility of the soil and the area suitable for agriculture are shrinking.

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

By underestimating the role of this greatest natural wealth, mankind endangers its very existence.

The protection of soil from its destruction, the fight against the decrease in its fertility is the most important environmental problem that requires urgent attention from the world community.

We hear the words "the land is the breadwinner" so often that we hardly attach any importance to them. But it would be more correct to say that trees and grass grow, forests rustle and wheat sways in the field only due to the fact that we have land, or rather soil. Soil formation began with the appearance of the first living beings on Earth, so it is to them that we owe life, and not only genetically. “Since ancient times, people have known that the world around them has an amazing property, which has been called fertility. animal world. She happens to be necessary condition for plant, animal and human life. Cultivating crops, people noticed that the crop grown from the seeds of the same plant is not the same on different plots of land.

The soil also plays an important role in the natural habitat of man. Soil, belonging to the category of non-renewable natural resources, is the main means of agricultural production. International declarations and agreements on the problems of nature management ("World Strategy for Conservation of Nature", "World Soil Charter", "Fundamentals of World Soil Policy") affirm the importance of soil as a common property of mankind, which should be rationally used and protected by all people of the Earth.

At present, the problem of the interaction of human society with nature has become particularly acute. It becomes indisputable that the solution to the problem of preserving the quality of human life is unthinkable without a certain understanding of modern environmental issues. The soil cover of the Earth is the most important component of the Earth's biosphere. It is the soil shell that determines many processes occurring in the biosphere. The most important significance of soils is the accumulation of organic matter, various chemical elements, and energy. The soil cover functions as a biological absorber, destroyer and neutralizer of various contaminants. In addition, the soil is the most important natural formation.

Its role in the life of society is determined by the fact that the soil is the main source of food, providing 95-97% of the food resources for the world's population. The land area of ​​the world is 129 million km2 or 86.5% of the land area. Arable land and perennial plantations as part of agricultural land occupy about 15 million km2 (10% of land), hayfields and pastures - 37.4 million km2 (25% of land). The general arable suitability of lands is estimated by various researchers in different ways: from 25 to 32 million km2.

If this link of the biosphere is destroyed, then the existing functioning of the biosphere will be irreversibly disrupted. Modern soil cover has been formed over thousands of years, in conditions that have now completely changed. Hence, the importance of correct and effective use and conservation of soil resources.

Introduction.

Soil science is a rather young science. People have always interacted with the soil, but it was not easy to deepen knowledge and systematize. The subject of this science is the soil - a special realm of nature, about which, as early as 1771, professor of Moscow University M.I. Afonin at the solemn meeting of the university said this: "The soil is the most beautiful creation of the Most High Being." Now the soil is considered as an organo-mineral natural body, with its own characteristics and functions...

The role of soils in nature.

The soil cover forms one of the geophysical shells of the Earth - the pedosphere. The main geospheric functions of the soil as a natural body are due to the position of the soil at the junction of living and inanimate nature. And the main one is the provision of life on Earth. It is in the soil that terrestrial plants take root, small animals, a huge mass of microorganisms live in it. As a result of soil formation, it is in the soil that water and mineral nutrition elements that are vital for organisms are concentrated in the forms of chemical compounds available to them. Thus, soil is a condition for the existence of life, but at the same time soil is a consequence of life on Earth.

There are the following general functions soils:

· Energy storage The soil is the most important condition for the photosynthetic activity of plants.

Ensuring constant interaction between large geological and small biological cycles of substances

The soil is involved in the process of regulating the composition of the atmosphere and hydrosphere

Regulation of biospheric processes, in particular the density and productivity of living organisms on the earth's surface

Ensuring the existence of life on earth

But besides this, there are also ecological and biospheric functions of the soil, which also need to be known when studying and analyzing the soil cover.

Ecological and biospheric functions of soils.

Ecological functions of soils - the study of the role and forms of participation of soils in the functioning and dynamics of various natural and socio-natural systems.

Modern ideas about the ecological functions of soils make it possible to overcome the dominant one-sided perception of soil as an object of agricultural labor and interpret the soil cover of the Earth - the pedosphere as an indispensable planetary shell, without which the well-being of the biosphere and society is impossible. There are two main categories of soil ecofunctions: global and biogeocenotic (ecosystem).

Global functions are subdivided into hydrospheric, atmospheric, lithospheric, general biospheric and ethnospheric.

In Group hydrospheric functions Soils are isolated: soil transformation of surface water into groundwater; participation of soil in the formation of river runoff and its influence on the bioproductivity of water bodies due to brought soil compounds; soil functioning as a barrier protecting water areas from pollution, etc. Anthropogenic activity causes strong changes in the water regime of soils and the water balance of territories. Unfortunately, the consequences of these changes are clearly insufficiently taken into account, although in many cases they cause major negative phenomena in the regional and global scope. Among them are the violation of natural water exchange in geosystems, hypertrophy of the hydrological functions of soils, their waterlogging during irrigation, which is accompanied by processes of secondary salinization, desertification in arid and semiarid zones.

Group atmospheric functions soils includes: absorption and reflection of solar radiation by the soil; regulation of atmospheric moisture circulation; delivery of a solid substance and microorganisms into the air shell; absorption and retention of certain gases from escaping into outer space; regulation of the gas regime of the atmosphere. For example, in a structural plow horizon, almost complete air renewal can occur every hour. The scale of consumption and release of gases by the soil is characterized by an exceptional scope. For 1 hour of oxygen, 1000-4000 l / ha are consumed, in approximately the same quantities it is released carbon dioxide. Important is the interaction of the soil with the underground atmosphere, which is a very important area of ​​research. The significance of this issue is becoming more and more obvious in connection with the establishment of a significant variety of manifestations of the underground atmosphere and its large specific gravity in the total gas envelope of the Earth.

The work of microbiologists has shown that microflora is widespread in the soil, oxidizing hydrocarbons penetrating into it from the underground atmosphere. Moreover, increased concentrations of bacteria that oxidize propane and heptane were found above oil and gas deposits. At the same time, there were no hydrocarbons in the surface air of these areas before the discovery of deposits, which indicates the efficiency of the soil bacterial filter. The ecological significance of this function of soil and subsoil microorganisms can hardly be overestimated, because thanks to its action, the atmospheric habitat of higher organisms is protected from the harmful effects of combustible gases. Where the soil protective bacterial filter is destroyed in the fishing area, the content of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere reaches tenths, and sometimes several percent.

Thus, it can be stated that the gas-regulatory function of the soil, along with a similar function of terrestrial biocenoses, is an effective mechanism for maintaining the atmosphere by the soil in a certain regime that has been formed in the course of evolution. This is achieved by the variety and effectiveness of specific forms of soil influence on the atmosphere, which include: the release of numerous gaseous soil products into the atmosphere, the biological and physico-chemical absorption of troposphere gases, the fixation of gases released from the bowels of the Earth, etc.

Lithospheric functions soils include: biochemical transformation of the upper layers of the lithosphere with the participation of the soil-forming process; the role of soil as a source of matter for the formation of minerals, rocks, minerals; the contribution of the soil to the protection of the lithosphere from excessive erosion, to ensuring the conditions for its normal development, etc.

Analyzing the essence of the main lithospheric functions of the soil, it must be borne in mind that the upper part of the stone shell, bordering the hydrosphere and air shell, is in special thermodynamic conditions. The surface horizons of the lithosphere experience a constant destructive effect of a number of agents. On the continents, moving water and wind carry with them a special destructive force, which most intensively affects the daytime horizons of geological rocks that are not protected by soil and vegetation cover.

In Group general biospheric soil functions the soil acts as a habitat, an accumulator and a source of matter and energy for terrestrial organisms, a connecting link in biological and geological cycles, a planetary membrane, a protective barrier and a condition for the normal functioning of the biosphere, a factor in biological evolution.

Of particular interest is the role of soil as a habitat and a factor in biological evolution. The role of the soil as a habitat for plants and animals is manifested, first of all, in the fact that it is with it that the existence of most species of living organisms and the formation of the bulk of the living matter of the planet are associated.

It has been proven (M.S. Gilyarov, D.A. Krivolutsky, and others) that without soil, the variety of terrestrial life forms that exists today would not be possible. However, anthropogenic impacts on the biosphere, leading to negative changes in the soil shell, weaken its role as a favorable habitat for many groups of organisms, which inevitably leads to a decrease in biodiversity.

Significant role of soil cover in differentiation geographical envelope and the biosphere. natural areas reflect the order of alternation and spatial orientation of zones determine the structure of the continental part of the geographic shell and the biosphere.

Soil is a factor in biological evolution. Until now, the assessment of the significance of the soil has not been fully implemented. Analyzing the soil, scientists came to the conclusion that the soil shell is intermediate between water and air, through which a gradual transition from an aquatic lifestyle to a terrestrial one is possible.

Ethnospheric functions of soils. Among the outstanding achievements of interdisciplinary areas of research on the relationship between nature and society, among the first should be called the geographic and ethnological works of L.N. publications. Convincingly showing that "the diversity of landscapes is the reason for the ethnic mosaic of the anthroposphere", the scientist stimulated many sciences to re-evaluate the degree of dependence of ethnic groups and society as a whole on various components of the geographic environment and the biosphere as a whole. This assessment should also touch upon soil science, since in direct and indirect form the degree of influence of soil on ethnogenesis is very tangible. “Space and planetary variations are several orders of magnitude higher than ethnogenesis, they affect the entire biosphere, which includes not only the totality of living organisms, but also soils ... And although ethnic groups are “drops in the ocean of the biosphere,” they cannot but react to its fluctuations.”

An analysis of this issue gives grounds to single out the category of ethnospheric, as well as sociospheric functions of the soil, which essentially determine the ethnogenesis and life of the ethnosphere and sociosphere. Among these functions are: the role of soil as one of the important factors in the existence and dynamics of the ethnosphere and sociosphere; its participation in the formation of minerals and energy resources used by the ethnic groups of the Earth; soil as a place for settlements, industrial and road facilities; preservation by the soil of information about the development of the natural and ethno-cultural environment, etc.

Importance of soils for human life. The soil is a colossal natural wealth that provides humans with food, animals with feed, and industry with raw materials. It has been created for centuries and millennia. So in order to properly use the soil, you need to know how it was formed, its structure, composition and properties. The soil has a special property - fertility, it serves as the basis for agriculture in all states. Much hygienic role of soil: it is a factor environment, with which a person is directly connected throughout life. Living on the surface of the Earth, extracting water and minerals from it, a person is regularly exposed to the influence of factors associated with the soil and affecting his health and living conditions.

Slide 25 from the presentation ""Soil" Grade 8". The size of the archive with the presentation is 1869 KB.

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In the distant high school we were given material on soils every year, so that the standard three pages were imprinted in my memory for a long time. They also talked about the importance of soils for ecosystems, then it was a serious issue: the ecology in the city was so-so, we were taught to take care of nature. In any case, everyone should know more about the importance of soil for life on our green-blue planet.

Importance of soil in the water cycle

Everyone remembers the diagram in which water droplets move across the lake, earth and sky in the picture? So, if someone suddenly did not know or forgot: groundwater is an important component of the water cycle, and underground channels, rivers, caves are formed due to soil erosion. Mineral substances contained in the soil settle on the surface of the forming channel, and life arises in underground caves: ground beetles, some amphibians and fish inhabit them.

soil for animals

Everything seems to be obvious here: burrowing animals build entire underground castles, feed on insects that leave their larvae in the soil. Worms (these are Amphibians), all worms (flat, round, annelids) live shallow in the soil, often spending their whole lives under the ground cover.

soil for plants

Most plants have a root system that rests on the soil as a drainage:

These three categories are distinguished on a completely understandable basis: ephemera have a small root system that goes shallow into the soil and suck out minerals that are shallow in the soil; some shrubs and trees can have roots reaching five to six meters in length.

Importance of soils for the ecosystem

Minerals and water contained in the soil directly affect the ecosystem: both plant and animal composition depends on it.

common woodlouse

In addition, sediment that enters the soil can be stored or recycled, for example, ground woodlice convert lead that enters the soil into harmless precipitation. Thus, harmful heavy metals do not enter the atmosphere.