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Participant: part of or influencing processes

Soil

Appears in 47 processs and 120 steps. Everything below is linked: open a process to see it in context.

Top processes

Water movement

8 steps

Infiltration and surface partitioning of rain (rain intensity vs 1-1000 mm/h soil capacity)

8 steps

Soil thermal regime and heat flow

7 steps

Living soil system

6 steps

Start: Living soil system
End: Living soil system
Atmospheric dust deposition and loess as soil parent material
and 3 more in this process

Land water: infiltration, runoff and groundwater

5 steps

Start: Land water: infiltration, runoff and groundwater
End: Land water: infiltration, runoff and groundwater
What happens to precipitation over land
and 2 more in this process

Vegetation-water feedback and dryland patchiness

5 steps

Start: Vegetation-water feedback and dryland patchiness
End: Vegetation-water feedback and dryland patchiness
More rain enters the soil instead of running off
and 2 more in this process

Show 41 more processes

Evapotranspiration partitioning (about 61 percent transpiration, range 35-90)

5 steps

Drainage, groundwater recharge and runoff (about 65 percent of rain returns to air, 35 percent runs off)

5 steps

Erosion versus soil production balance

5 steps

Start: Erosion versus soil production balance
End: Erosion versus soil production balance
Tillage and bare ground raise runoff and erosion
and 2 more in this process

Land water partitioning and plant water flux

5 steps

Start: Land water partitioning and plant water flux
End: Land water partitioning and plant water flux
Fate of precipitation on land
and 2 more in this process

Soil production and erosion balance

4 steps

Start: Soil production and erosion balance
End: Soil production and erosion balance
Thicker soil insulates bedrock and slows production
and 1 more in this process

Wind erosion and dust emission from dry soil

4 steps

Soil state factors and the erosion-formation balance

4 steps

Where soil organic carbon sits in the top metre
Mid-depth soil (20-40 cm) stores carbon with fewer roots
Subsoil below 40 cm holds old, mineral-bound carbon
and 1 more in this process

Pedogenesis and soil horizon development

3 steps

Atmospheric dust deposition and loess as soil parent material

3 steps

Soil export to rivers and ocean: sediment, dissolved carbon and nutrients

3 steps

Terrestrial ecosystem functioning

2 steps

Soil formation

2 steps

Organism-environment interactions

2 steps

Evaporation and transpiration

2 steps

Mineral weathering and parent material

2 steps

Freeze-thaw cycling and soil structure

2 steps

Soil-atmosphere exchange of methane and nitrous oxide

2 steps

Shrink-swell cycles and crack dynamics in clay soils

2 steps

Weathering regime: supply-limited versus kinetically limited

2 steps

Terrestrial carbon uptake and release

1 step

Litterfall and root turnover supply organic matter to soil

Water infiltration, retention and movement

1 step

Soil moisture state: wet, optimal or dry

Water cycle

1 step

Land water: infiltration, runoff and groundwater

Nitrogen cycling

1 step

Plant litter and dead roots return organic nitrogen to soil

Phosphorus cycling

1 step

Plant litter returns organic phosphorus to soil

Biological uptake, litter return and mineralization

1 step

Remaining nutrients drop in litter

Clay mineral transformation sequence

1 step

Clay mineralogy sets CEC, swelling and aggregate behaviour

Redox ladder: sequential electron acceptors in waterlogged soil

1 step

Flood persists beyond several weeks?

Biochar and charcoal in soil

1 step

Soil and char type decide the response

Soil disturbance (fire, tillage, drought) and recovery

1 step

Soil is left degraded, eroded or in an alternative state

Pedogenic carbonate accumulation and calcrete formation

1 step

Soil inorganic carbon stores on the order of 700 to 950 Pg C in the top metre globally

Micronutrient availability: pH, redox and plant mobilisation of Fe and Zn

1 step

About half of cereal-growing soils worldwide have low plant-available Zn

Matric potential and the soil water retention curve

1 step

Soil water potential relative to plant thresholds

Ecosystem engineering feedbacks

1 step

Soil structure, moisture and temperature change around the engineer

Phosphorus decline and rescue across soil ages

1 step

Occluded and organic phosphorus dominate old soils

Hydraulic redistribution by roots (0.04-1.3 mm per day)

1 step

Night: stomata close and roots lift water from wet subsoil to dry topsoil

Chemical weathering: CO2-driven dissolution and CO2 consumption

1 step

Soil CO2 (0.3-3 percent, 10-100 times air) dissolves to carbonic acid and lowers pH to 4.5-6

Biological weathering by roots, mycorrhizal fungi and microbes (plants speed weathering about 2-10 fold)

1 step

Plants cycle cations in litter, retaining them near the surface (biological pump of base cations)

Plant-soil feedback via litter quality

1 step

Higher fertility favours fast-growing, acquisitive species

Chronosequence: limiting nutrient and nutrient source shift as soil ages

1 step

Old soil: P is mostly occluded or lost and P limits plants

Soil production versus erosion (soil thickness balance)

1 step

Soil thickens and buffers bedrock from water and roots

Mineral surfaces accumulate and protect organic carbon as soil ages

1 step

Carbon stock is set jointly by geochemistry and climate

Often found with

Water 55 Plants 37 Rain 29 Soil organic matter 14 Soil 12 Rivers 10 Clay minerals 9 Wind 9 Phosphorus 9 Aquifers 8 Sun 7 Heat 7

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