Soil Carbon and Soil Health
Soil carbon improves the physical properties of soil. It increases the cation exchange capacity (CEC) and water-holding capacity of sandy soil, and it contributes to the structural stability of clay soils by helping to bind particles into aggregates. Soil organic matter, of which carbon is a major part, holds a great proportion of nutrients cations and trace elements that are of importance to plant growth. It prevents nutrient leaching and is integral to the organic acids that make minerals available to plants. It also buffers soil from strong changes in pH. It is widely accepted that the carbon content of soil is a major factor in its overall health.
Read more about this topic: Soil Carbon
Famous quotes containing the words soil and/or health:
“Our own country furnishes antiquities as ancient and durable, and as useful, as any; rocks at least as well covered with lichens, and a soil which, if it is virgin, is but virgin mould, the very dust of nature. What if we cannot read Rome or Greece, Etruria or Carthage, or Egypt or Babylon, on these; are our cliffs bare?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A major difference between witches and psychotherapists is that witches see the mental health of women as having important political consequences.”
—Naomi R. Goldenberg (b. 1947)