Soils

Soil is the living, biologically active, porous, and nonrenewable dynamic resource providing ecosystem services critical for life. This chapter will introduce readers to soil and various concepts pertaining to soil like soil profile, genesis of soil, characteristics of soil, and soil pollution. Air movement, water movement, temperature, and pH are correlated with soil. Specific section has been dedicated to soils of India. This chapter provides a general understanding of various soil concepts along with the problems that soil undergoes, either naturally or because of humans. It provides an overall insight of soil, for better land management decisions.