EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Active organic matter provides habitat and food for beneficial soil organisms that help build soil structure and porosity, provide nutrients to plants, and improve the water holding capacity of the soil.

Detailed explanation-2: -PHYSICAL: Soil organic matter improves soil structure. This ultimately helps to control soil erosion and improves water infiltration and water holding capacity, giving plant roots and soil organisms better living conditions.

Detailed explanation-3: -Organic matter improves soil structure, which results in increased water infiltration following rains and increased water-holding capacity of the soil; it also enhances root growth into more permeable soil. This results in better plant health and allows more movement of mobile nutrients (such as nitrates) to the root.

Detailed explanation-4: -Other advantages of soil compaction include durability of the soil structure, minimized deterioration (i.e. erosion), and achieving a desirable soil permeability (water passage).

Detailed explanation-5: -Organic matter causes soil to clump and form soil aggregates, which improves soil structure. With better soil structure, permeability (infiltration of water through the soil) improves, in turn improving the soil’s ability to take up and hold water. This property of organic matter is not widely known.