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10 Things You Didn't Know About Soil
- More organisms exist in 1 tablespoon of soil than there are people on earth.
- Ever feel like you can breathe easier when you’re outside, particularly in soil-dense areas? That may be because soil contains more carbon than all of the world’s forests and 10% of the world’s carbon dioxide.
- Don’t let soil’s position on the food chain fool youit’s actually vital for life to exist, and has been found in meteorites that were around during the birth of the solar system.
- Soil is alive! It contains billions of living microogranism, but only about 1% have been identified by scientists.
- The mismanagement of soil is said to contribute to climate change, due to the release of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.
- Without a layer of vegetative matter covering its surface, soil is vulnerable, and is being swept and washed away 10 to 40 times faster than it is being replenished.
- Soil is essentially a recycling receptacle that processes nutrients for living things to use over and over again.
- Just under an inch of topsoilthe most productive layer of soiltakes about 500 years to produce.
- Thirty-one soil types are currently extinct in North America and 508 types are considered an endangered species in the United States.
- You can help save soil! Start a conversation about sustainable management of soil and water resources in your community.
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