Trees help maintain the soil quality in forests.
Soil provides the foundation for entire ecosystems. The soil is an unconsolidated amount of minerals and organic matter, with various microorganisms affecting its condition. Some temperate regions have soils with high nutrient content, while other temperate regions rely on rapid nutrient recycling to drive vigorous plant growth. Does this Spark an idea?
Temperature and Moisture
Temperate areas have a mild amount of soil respiration occurring as a result of warmer months. The warmer months heat up the temperate soil and release carbon dioxide. During the winter, temperate areas often get a lot of snow and ice that freezes the soil. When the water melts, the water dramatically increases the moisture content of the soil. The soil is also moist during the spring rains. Dry temperate regions tend to have more alkaline soil. Wet temperate regions have more acidic soil because of the rainfall.
Grasslands
Grasslands often develop in temperate regions. Temperate grasslands usually have deep soil, with a fertile upper layer. Natural prairies have become rare because farmers often turn them into farmland because of the soil fertility. The nutrients on the topsoils come from the decomposition of the grass roots. These grasslands occasionally experience fires, but not as often as in the drier savanna grasslands. These fires can increase the soil fertility. In the semiarid regions, soil mostly forms through calcification, which is when calcium salts build up in soft tissue. The soils usually experience little leeching and have high amounts of calcium carbonate.
Temperate Rainforests
Temperate rainforests have red and yellow clay soil with high acidity. The soil tends to have few nutrients. The Amazon soils are reddish because they have high iron oxide and aluminum oxide, sometimes in toxic amounts, while having low phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and potassium content. However, despite the low nutrient availability, the rainforests have rapid nutrient cycling. The majority of the nutrients are not found in the soil but in the vegetative matter. Dead and decaying matter provides the majority of the nutrients. Various organisms rapidly decompose the decaying plant material.
Temperate Forests
In regular temperate forests, the majority of the nutrients remain in the top 2 feet of soil where a diverse array of microorganisms works to break down the dead and decaying plant and animal life. The trees help trap the moisture in the soil so that the water does not run off into the streams. The trees must remain in the forests or else the soil will erode quickly. Deforestation and fire can rapidly destroy nutrient availability.
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