Did you know …..?
10 tonnes of topsoil spread evenly over a hectare is only as thick as a coin — European Soils Portal —
An average soil sample is 45% minerals, 25% water, 25% air, and 5% organic matter — USA EPA —
0.01% of the earth’s water held in soil — Audubon —
1 cup of soil may hold as many bacteria as there are people on earth, over 6 billion — NRCS —
Over 1000 species of invertebrates may be found in a single m2 of forest soil — Soil Food Web —
Natural processes can take more than 500 years to form 2 centimetres of topsoil. — European Soils Portal —
5 tonnes of animal life can live in one hectare of soil. — European Soils Portal —
Soil supports our planets biodiversity and they host a quarter of the total — FAO —
A typical, healthy soil might contain several species of vertebrate animals, several species of earthworms, 20-30 species of mites, 50-100 species of insects, tens of species of nematodes, hundreds of species of fungi and perhaps thousands of species of bacteria and actinomycetes. — FAO —
Soil contains the organism with the largest area. A single colony of the honey fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, covers about 9 km2. — FAO —
Mature trees can have as many as 5 million root tips — Soil Food Web —
“Farmers are less than 1% of the Australian population today.
In 1950, an Australian farmer fed 20 people
In1970, an Australian farmer fed 200 people
Today, an Australian farmer feeds 600 people”.
— Lynne Strong, Bega ABARES Regional Outlook Conference 30/08/12. —
“…the intensification of farming over the last century has increased the rate of soil erosion 60-fold” — George Monbitt —
Since 1945 » 11% of earth’s vegetated surface (» area of China + India) has been degraded so badly it will be very expensive or impossible to fix — Rattan Lal —
Globally salinisation removes about 3 hectares of land from production every minute. — Rattan Lal —
40% of Africa’s soils are currently degraded — FAO —
33% of global soil is moderately to highly degraded — FAO —
In next 30 years humans will need as much food and fibre as they used in last 10 000 yrs. — Rattan Lal —
Increasing soil organic matter content, using nutrients wisely, keeping soil surface vegetated, promoting crop rotations and reducing erosion can lead to an average crop yield increase of 58% — FAO —
Global population will exceed 9 billion by 2050 — FAO —
Agricultural production will need to increase globally by 60% to meet 2050 demand — FAO —
Agricultural production will need to increase 100% in developing countries to meet 2050 demand — FAO —
“Australia’s contribution to global greenhouse emissions with its 23 million people is about 40% of the total of the 61 nations of Africa with a billion people” — Sydney Morning Herald —
Soil stores 10% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. — European Soils Portal —
Estimates of past losses of Carbon from terrestrial stocks:
- 66-90 billion tonnes — Rattan Lal —
- ~200 billion tonnes — Charles Rice —
Biomass Burning is responsible for 40% of annual emissions of C02. — NASA —