Soil Characterisation

March 23, 2012

Welcome to the inaugural blog of http://soilcharacterisation.com/news/  – everything you need to know about soil.  Let’s start by asking why is soil so important?  Soil is the medium in which plants grow and animals and other micro-organisms live. Soil is vital for the production of food, timber and fibre, which are all essential for human existence and to provide future economic prosperity.

Soil also influences the character of a landscape and preserves archaeological remains as well as playing a key role in pollution prevention and for carbon storage and release that can influence climate change through modifying the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  It is also important in nutrient cycling, regulating water flow and flood risk reduction.

Understanding why soil is so vital and you quickly see why we need to understand it’s characteristics: what is the soil type, soil texture, soil resistance, soil stability, soil moisture content, soil structure and soil composition, in particular the carbonate content.  The sensible use and management of soil is essential to understanding the links between land use and agricultural practices and, in the future, for tackling the challenges of climate change.

The erosion of soil and the results of intensive farming on the landscape, our health and future productivity of the land are well documented. Whether you follow these debates or not, the important ingredient to measure, monitor, track, compare, re-generate and cherish is SOIL.

Visit our soil characterization pages: https://www.vanwalt.com/lab_equipment-groundwater-soil-sampling-auger.htm for more details of our laboratory equipment for analyzing soil.