Aug. 3, 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. August’s theme is “Soils Support Health”. In SSSA’s August 1 Soils Matter blog post, experts explain the role of larger animals in the soil ecosystem.

According to Nick Comerford, “Healthy humans indeed need healthy soils!” Comerford is a soil scientist with University of Florida.

“Healthy soils grow nutrient-rich foods,” says Comerford. “The calcium in broccoli comes from soils. Proteins found in wheat start out as nitrogen in the soil. If the soil is deficient in any of these nutrients, the crops grown won’t be as nutritious as crops grown in healthy soil.”

Additionally, soils provide space for a diverse animal population, from animals we can see (gophers and ants) to single-celled microbes. Finally, soils provide a physical support for root structure of plants from the size of a flower to tall trees.

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. August’s Soils Support Health 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.