The soil habitat, the characteristics of which will be considered in our article, is the basis of life for many organisms. How can one exist in the absence of light and a large amount of carbon dioxide? Let's get it together.
Environmental factors
In the environment, a number of conditions will inevitably affect any living organism. They are called environmental factors. Among them, a special group consists of components of inanimate nature. These are abiotic factors. These include indicators of water and air temperature, pressure, chemical composition of the atmosphere, soil type.
Biotic factors combine different forms of relationships between organisms. They can be neutral, mutually beneficial or antagonistic. At the present stage, anthropogenic factors have acquired particular importance. These are all forms of human economic activity.
Habitat organisms
Each species is adapted to certain conditions of existence. Their combination is called the habitat. There are four of them. These are ground-air, water, soil and other organisms. Each of them has its own characteristics. For example, high specific heat, slight temperature fluctuations - these are the characteristics of the aquatic environment. For the soil, completely different indicators are characteristic.
What is soil?
Let's start by defining the concept. Soil is called the upper loose fertile layer of the earth. Its structure is represented by clay particles, grains of sand and organic matter - humus. Between them are cavities that are filled with water or air. The depth of the soil habitat, the characteristics of which we are considering, is several meters.
The main characteristic of the soil is fertility. It is determined by the amount of humus. The most fertile soil is black soil. In this indicator, loamy, loamy and clay soils are significantly inferior to them .
Characteristics of soil habitat: table
| Layer | Composition and properties |
| Humus (humus) | It has a dark color due to the content of a large number of humic acids. It is able to glue small particles of soil into larger ones, which increases porosity and increases the amount of oxygen. This layer determines the fertility of the soil and forms the basis of the mineral nutrition of plants. |
| Litter | Formed by plant litter. Under the influence of living organisms, chemical processes take place here, as a result of which humus and humic acids are formed. |
| Mother breed | It has a high density, is the basis of the mineral components of the soil - sand and clay. |
As you can see, the soil is a fairly dynamic system. Over time, the layers interconvert and replace each other.
Soil habitat: characteristic
The upper layer of the lithosphere has a number of unique features. The soil habitat, the nature of the conditions of which is characterized by relative constancy, has the following characteristics:
- High density, which impedes the movement of organisms.
- The presence of light only in the upper layers, which makes possible the existence of certain types of algae there.
- Minor temperature changes.
- The increased content of carbon dioxide, which is the product of respiration of the roots of plants, soil bacteria, fungi and animals.
- Constant availability of water, the level of which is determined by climatic conditions and the number of inhabitants.
- The presence of multi-species communities of organisms and their residues.
Locals
Who is able to dwell in such conditions? In the upper layer of soil are root systems and modified shoots of plants. There are lichens, cyanobacteria, green and diatoms. Especially a lot of them on the surface of the soil, where the most favorable conditions for the implementation of photosynthesis.
But fungi and bacteria inhabit the entire thickness of the soil. Among animals there are simple, annular and roundworms, gastropods. Soil vertebrates are mole rats, moles, and shrews.
Some animals spend only a certain stage of their life in this habitat. For example, beetles lay their larvae in the soil. And as they develop, they move to a ground-air environment. Rodents here endure adverse conditions - drought or cold.
Adaptation ways
The characteristic of the soil habitat includes the characteristics of the organisms that inhabit it. Each species has adapted to it in its own way. Since movement in the soil is difficult, its inhabitants have a worm-shaped or rounded body shape. There are two ways to move in the soil. So, earthworms pass it through a digestive tube. But mammals have digging limbs. In mole rats and moles, the organs of vision are underdeveloped, and in some species they are completely overgrown. In their many moves, such animals are guided by other sensory organs - touch and smell.
Since when moving animals are constantly subjected to friction against solid particles, their covers are durable and flexible. Along with this, water evaporates through the cuticle of soil insects, which is very important in conditions of high humidity. Oxygen molecules are located between solid particles, so most soil animals breathe the entire surface of the body.
Underground residents are very diverse in their way of eating. Among them there are predators, parasites, phytophages. But most of them are saprotrophs. These are organisms that consume dead organics. Representatives of this group are bacteria and fungi. They are of great importance for the processes of soil formation, improving the structure, mixing and aeration of the soil.
So, the characteristic of the soil habitat is briefly represented by the following features:
- It is the upper layer of the lithosphere, which has fertility.
- It consists of solid particles and humus, between which are molecules of water and air.
- Differs in constancy of conditions.
- The main abiotic factors for this environment are the lack of light, the high content of carbon dioxide, and high density.