July 1, 2015-In celebration of the International Year of Soil 2015 (IYS), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is coordinating a series of activities throughout the year to educate the public about the importance of soil. July’s theme is “Soils Are Living”. In SSSA’s July 1 Soils Matter blog post, experts explain the role of larger animals in the soil ecosystem.

According to Mary Stromberger, “none of the services that soils provide could be done without the animals that live in them.” Stromberger is a soil scientist with Colorado State University.

Large animals like gopher turtles and burrowing owls live in soils, as well as smaller ones like earthworms.

Soil animals perform several functions in soil that make them a vital part of all ecosystems, including agriculture. Soil animals are involved in:

• degrading organic matter and making nutrients available,
• improving and maintaining soil structure; and,
• mixing organic matter through the soil.

To read the entire blog post, visit http://soilsmatter.wordpress.com.

As part of their celebration of IYS, SSSA is developing a series of twelve 2-minute educational videos. July’s Soils Are Living video can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys/monthly-videos. Educational materials can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys.

Follow SSSA on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SSSA.soils, Twitter at SSSA_Soils. SSSA has soils information on www.soils.org/discover-soils, for teachers at www.soils4teachers.org, and for students through 12^th grade, www.soils4kids.org.