Life, a recent BBC nature documentary series, is a showcase of the diversity of the natural world and the extraordinary behaviour of living things. It seems that nature never fails to amaze the curious investigator; be it far, close or even underfoot.

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” - Leonardo da Vinci.

Yes, underfoot is the soil I want to talk about, which one of my professors fondly refers to as The Book of Nature. He would say, “Open The Book of Nature and read… here and there a chapter might be incomplete or you may not understand, but you can always learn about the past, the present and the future.” Indeed, my limited reading has found a lot of interesting chapters…

What is soil?

Technically defined, soil is a "natural body comprised of solids (minerals and organic matter), liquid, and gases that occurs on the land surface. It is characterized by distinguishable horizons and or the ability to support rooted plants in a natural environment".

In a much more ecological way, it is the basic structure that supports life’s primary producers, i.e. plants. It does this as a result of its unique capability to act as a reservoir of nutrients/water and then to supply those intermittently to the plants - very much like a prudent bank.

This is not the soil’s only role; it also acts as a foundation for infrastructure and as a cornerstone in the health of ecosystems, for example, by locking pollutants and harbouring ultimate decomposers. As such, it is considered as one of the three most vital natural resources, alongside air and water.

Why care for soils?

Knowledge of the soil's physical, chemical and biological make-up is important for various disciplines. For example, nutrient levels are important for crop production, soil shear strength is crucial for engineering construction, and its structure could also be a deciding factor for football pitches! It also has more exotic uses, such as a beauty accessory (see the intricate hair-styling of the Hamer of Ethiopia, for instance).

In addition to their functional roles, soils have been part of our life and culture in many ways. A recent book, Soil and Culture by Edward R. Landa and Christian Feller, pays tribute to their impact from visual arts to religion and from archaeology to disease and warfare, and as a further example, many states in the U.S. have a specific soil that is legislatively established as a ‘state soil’, just like a state bird or flower.

What is the status of soils today?

Like most of earth’s resources, soils in all parts of the world are under threat. From the physical problem of compaction to erosion, and from salinity to pollution, are increasingly degrading our soils, with negative effects on ecosystems, economy and human health. In addition, global warming threatens to release carbon trapped in soil's organic matter, exacerbating climate change and having grave consequences for life on earth.

What's being done?

As the concern on soils has come to the forefront of public awareness, national and international bodies are moving towards legislation and action. For example, the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recently published a revised strategy on soils.

Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, explains the importance of caring for soils.

Take it further

Educate yourself and others with the Soil Science Educational Resource.

Join surveys, for example, the OPAL national soil and earthworm survey.

Support those who are working to improve soils situation, such as the Soil Association.

Open University courses

Neighbourhood nature

Environment: journeys through a changing world

Other links

BBC Life

British Society for Soil Science

International Union of Soil Sciences

European Union Soil Thematic Strategy

About the author

Dr Yoseph Araya is a plant ecologist and associate lecturer at the Open University. He works on the biology and conservation of South African fynbos vegetation. Environmental education and the role of the public in research is one of his key interests.

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Blogging about

Digital Planet: BBC World Service

Let us guide you through a world of digital revolutions around this Digital Planet.

It's now been exactly a year since I arrived in northern Ethiopia with Voluntary Service Overseas to start a placement at Mekelle University. Based in the Computer Science department, I'm developing and training staff in e-learning and advising on general IT policy and strategy. Throughout the last year the university has been undergoing a period of huge change - with rapid expansion in student numbers, restructuring of the colleges and departments, and an ambitious plan to modernise and develop overall.

A computer lab in Mekelle University, Ethiopia.
[Image © copyright Terri O'Sullivan, some rights reserved]

Work and life is very different to living in Northampton and working at The Open University. It's certainly taken time to adjust to the new organisation, culture and way of working. After arriving with high expectations and a keenness to get moving with the job, work felt slow in the first few months and I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. However, everything has fallen into place recently. Now I have built up relationships and got to know the working practices, things have really started moving – and the time spent getting to know my colleagues, in particular, is really paying off. Their support and assistance has been vital; without them guiding me through, it would have been extremely difficult to achieve anything.

It also takes a while to get used to the network and power interruptions. The university is fortunate to have a 2Mb broadband connection, which, I believe, is one of the fastest connections in this part of Ethiopia – but we do have to share this between over a thousand staff. We're currently on a “power-sharing” schedule, where, during the working week, the power is off every other day. As you can imagine, this makes conducting IT training difficult. With scheduled powers cuts, you can work around this, but there are also other times when the power will go off for several hours without notice. Recently, some areas of the university have been supplied by backup generators, so this helps greatly, providing you are using the right computer labs. We're hoping this situation will improve once the rainy season is over and the hydroelectric dams are full.

The university has recently started a partnership with Alcala University in Spain to work with the Engineering and Health Sciences colleges, writing an e-learning training programme for selected tutors to attend over the coming semester. During the course, tutors will develop online activities for their students to take part in. Since student access to computers can be very limited, we're building two new computer labs - one for each college - so the students can participate in these activities. As this is pilot project, we're testing out installing thin client labs and using open source software. This is a huge contrast to the usual computer lab setup here, which consists of desktop PCs running Windows. At any given time up to three-quarters of the PCs may be out of action for a number of reasons, commonly due to virus infection, but also hardware failure. The labs then take a small army of IT technicians trying to keep as many PCs up and running as possible. We're hoping that the architecture of the thin client labs will vastly reduce the amount of support time needed, as well as being a more scalable solution, with the added bonus that it will be cheaper to increase the number of terminals.

Although most of my current work is involved in coordinating and managing these new labs and assisting with writing the training course material, I also have a few side projects to maintain. One of these involves showing staff from the Health Sciences college how to use GPSs to map the community health centres and health workers in the rural areas. The college has a number of projects in these areas measuring the impact of government schemes such as the Health Extension Programme - which gives healthcare training to local people so they can better support their communities.

Despite, or perhaps because of the problems, the sense of achievement is much greater than my work back in the UK. Knowing that you are making a real, though perhaps small, difference makes dealing with the life here all the more worthwhile. The Ethiopian people are very friendly, generous and appreciative, making it a highly rewarding and enjoyable experience.

How you can get involved

In my opinion, simply supplying more computers and hardware doesn't really help get to the core of the problem of IT development here: although more hardware will never be refused, IT training and staff development plays a greater role in development. Many staff - not only in the university but also teacher training colleges - lack the IT skills to maintain and make best use of the equipment available to them. Even computer science students arrive having hardly used a computer so a lot of time is spent developing basic skills, including how to operate word processors and spreadsheet packages. As has been reported elsewhere, viruses are a huge problem, damaging the tools that could help Ethiopia to develop. Training staff in how to install and, crucially, update their anti-virus software therefore has a significant impact.

My volunteering here is something I wish I’d done sooner. As a software developer by background, I'd often put off applying as I was unsure I had the skills needed to work in a developing country. It is a big commitment to give up a well-paid, comfortable job in the UK, but I haven't looked back. Not only have I been sharing my existing IT skills, but I have also developed new ones in terms of training, hardware and network maintenance. I'd definitely recommend other IT professionals to come and experience living and working in a developing country.

Blogging about

Breaking Science

The Breaking Science team come to BBC Radio Five Live to break open this week's science stories.

The Breaking Science team discussed the latest thinking about an unusual condition

Chris Smith: Talking about genes and how they’re linked to different conditions, there’s one very exciting condition which I’ve always wished I had just to be able to experience it, and that’s synaesthesia - the mixing of the senses - and scientists now reckon they’ve got one of the genes for that.

Kat Arney: Yes. Synaesthesia is a really fascinating neurological condition and it manifests itself in a range of ways. And it’s reasonably rare, it affects fewer than one in a hundred people, and it’s really described as if the sensory wires were crossed in your brain.

So for example, people with synaesthesia can smell colours or taste sounds, and now researchers in London, Cambridge and Oxford have tracked down specific regions of the genome that harbour genes that are linked to audiovisual synaesthesia. And we do know from previous research that this condition can run in families, but researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint the genes that might be involved. But now writing in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Dr Julian Asher and his team used new genome scanning technology to hunt for genes that were linked to synaesthesia, and they used 43 families that had this condition in the family.

Tasting the colours? A woman with a lollipop.

[image © copyright Jupiterimages]

Chris Smith: And what have they found in those families?

Kat Arney: So far they’ve found four regions of the genome that are linked to synaesthesia. These were on human chromosomes 2, 5, 6 and 12. Now they haven’t found specific genes, they’ve just tracked down some general regions, and the regional chromosome 2 is probably the most intriguing, as it’s also been linked to autism and people with autism often have differences in their perception and their senses.

Chris Smith: But in what they did find, was there anything of interest in there?

Kat Arney: Well of the regions that they did find there are some very interesting genes in there, such as genes for epilepsy, genes that have been linked to dyslexia, learning and memory in some of these regions which obviously need a lot more investigation. And so far, although they haven’t found any specific genes, there’s a lot of candidates which we could look at in future.

Chris Smith: As they say, nature normally reveals her workings through her mistakes because it gives us an insight into the molecular clockwork of how things like the brain actually work.

Kat Arney: Absolutely.

Episode originally broadcast February 2009 on BBC Radio Five Live. Listen to the full programme online.

Find out more

Synaesthetes discussed their condition as part of our coverage of the 2003 Reith Lectures

Synaesthesia is at the heart of the novel Astonishing Splashes Of Colour

Are you ready to start studying psychology with The Open University?