Just For Kids: Amazing Facts

st National Science & Technology Center Berene of lnd Manggemene Just for Kids SOIL BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES Amazing Facts Kids Gallery Amazing Facts Explore Your Mind Home Want to Kids' Soil Importance Incredible Fun Activities Adopt a Soil Critter Know More? Journey Gallery Amazing Facts There are lots of fantastic facts about the soil that you will want to know. Lets find out more! Almost all the food you eat, fiber (material) for the clothes you wear, and lumber (wood) for the house you live in is produced by soil. A single shovelful of soil can contain more species (kinds) of organisms (living things) than live aboveground in the entire Amazon rain forest. One cup of soil may hold as many bacteria as there are people on Earth. That's over 6 billion! The weight of all the bacteria in 1 acre of soil (about the size of a football field) can equal the weight of one or two cows. Mature trees can have as many as 5 million active root tips. A teaspoonful of forest soil may hold more than 10 miles of fungi. Almost all freshwater travels over soil or through soil before entering our rivers, lakes, and aquifers (underground water lakes). Plants can remove 400 to 2,000 pounds of water from the soil for every 2 pounds of plant material produced. Amazing Facts About 85 percent of carbon dioxide (the stuff you breathe out) in our atmosphere (air) comes from the action of soil microorganisms (small living things) feeding on organic matter in the soil. When you take a step in a forest, you are being held up on the backs of thousands of bugs. For further information, e-mail Content Manager BLM Soil Scientist Bill Ypsilantis Top of Page | Back | Next Page | Home