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Soil ecology. Soil ecology is the study of the interactions among soil organisms, and between biotic and abiotic aspects of the soil environment. [1] It is particularly concerned with the cycling of nutrients, formation and stabilization of the pore structure, the spread and vitality of pathogens, and the biodiversity of this rich biological ...
The biological soil crust is an integral part of many arid and semi-arid ecosystems as an essential contributor to conditions such as dust control, water acquisition, and contributors of soil nutrients. Biocrust is poikilohydric and does not have the ability to maintain or regulate its own water retention. [ 12]
There are numerous effects of climate change on agriculture, many of which are making it harder for agricultural activities to provide global food security. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns often result in lower crop yields due to water scarcity caused by drought, heat waves and flooding. [ 5]
The physical properties of soil, in order of decreasing importance for ecosystem services such as crop production, are texture, structure, bulk density, porosity, consistency, temperature, colour and resistivity. [ 1] Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand ...
The soil food web is the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. It describes a complex living system in the soil and how it interacts with the environment, plants, and animals. Food webs describe the transfer of energy between species in an ecosystem. While a food chain examines one, linear, energy pathway through ...
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. [ 1] It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services.
The minerals and nutrients in the soil is recycled back into the production of crops. A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cyclic.
Theoretical production ecology tries to quantitatively study the growth of crops. The plant is treated as a kind of biological factory, which processes light, carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients into harvestable parts. Main parameters kept into consideration are temperature, sunlight, standing crop biomass, plant production distribution ...