Introduction to Soil, its Degradation and Reclamation Strategies

1. Isha Sharma
   Department of Botany, Cluster University of Jammu, Jammu, India
   Corresponding author: ishabhardwaj13@gamil.com
2. Akshat Uniyal
   Alpine Institute of Management and Technology, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
   
3. Shrashti Saxena
   Alpine Institute of Management and Technology, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

The practical awareness of soils and their management has become known since the rise of agroforestry in the 8th millennium BCE. The advent of industrial revolution in 18th and 19th centuries has brought pressure on soil to produce raw materials demanded by commerce, while the development of quantitative science offered new opportunities for improved soil management. The study of soil as a separate scientific discipline began about the same time with systematic investigations of substances that enhance plant growth. This initial inquiry has expanded to an understanding of soils as complex, dynamic, biogeochemical systems that are vital to the life cycles of terrestrial vegetation and soil-inhabiting organisms—and by extension to the human race as well. The word ‘soil’ comes from Latin word “Solum” meaning floor or ground floor. It is the ground where living and non-living components of the world meet. The soil is a product of the interaction of the biotic components with geological substrate under the climatic influence.

Soil can be defined as a mixture of minerals and organic matter, capable of supplying all the essential nutrients and water that can act as a medium for plant growth. The soil is a complex biochemical material on which plant grows and consists of dynamic ecological systems characterized by diverse and interacting populations of micro-organisms.

Keywords: Dokuchaev’s equation, Paedogenesis, Desertification, Rhizodegradation, phytostabilization