Our world’s soils are the foundation of life on Earth. Established by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, each year on December 5th World Soil Day celebrates soils and raises awareness of their importance for sustainable agrifood systems, climate action, biodiversity, and human well-being. Monster Tree Service is proud to celebrate World Soil Day and recognizes the critical importance of soil health in tree care and its role in supporting the health and well-being of our communities. In recognition of World Soil Day, we would like to share 10 amazing and fun facts about trees and the soil that supports them.
- Soil is a lot more than dirt! Less than half of soil, about 45%, is made of dirt which is really its mineral particles. The other half is made of water and air and at least 5% of soil contains organic matter and a vast population of soil organisms.
- In nature, it can take anywhere from 100 to 1000 years to form one inch of topsoil, the crucial top layer of soil that supports trees, plants and ecosystems.
- In a single handful of healthy soil there are more living organisms than there are people on Planet Earth.
- Soil is home to more than half of all life on earth – recent figures estimate that 59% percent of all of the word’s species live in soil, making it the most biodiverse habitat on the planet.
- The earth’s soil contains the greatest concentration of biomass compared to anywhere else on the planet. If you could weigh all the organisms in the top six inches of soil on an acre of land, they would weigh between 2,500 pounds to more than 5,000 pounds.
- Soil contains more than 80% of the world’s terrestrial carbon – which is more carbon than what is held in the earth’s atmosphere and all of the world’s plants and forests combined.
- The economic value of soil’s ecosystem services is estimated at over $11 trillion annually, with every $1 of investment in soil regeneration leading to as much as $30 in economic returns.
- Soil is one of the most productive sources of antibiotic producing organisms - many well-known antibiotic drugs, including streptomycin, neomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, and chloramphenicol, are sourced from organisms that live in soil.
- Tree roots grow really wide. A tree’s roots usually extend 3-5 times the diameter of its canopy, spreading well beyond the perimeter of its branches.
- Tree roots usually don’t grow deep. Even with the tallest of trees, most tree roots only grow down into soil at a depth of 18 inches with half of their absorbing roots concentrated into the upper 6 inches of soil. This is due to the fact that root growth is mostly confined to the upper soil layers where oxygen, water and nutrients are more readily available.
Learn more about trees and soil here in our Monster Tree Tips article. You can also talk to your Monster Arborist about how Soil Health Care can help your trees - and find out more about our Soil Health Care Services on our website!