All articles starting with S

Soil fertility

Soil fertility: a soil's capacity to supply essential plant nutrients, governed by pH, cation exchange capacity, texture, and soil organic matter. Also called soil quality/health component; assessed via minimum data sets, managed through integrated nutrient management.

Soil formation

Soil formation (pedogenesis) is the production of soil from parent material through five factors: climate, organisms, relief, parent material, and time (CLORPT), over hundreds to thousands of years.

Soil horizon

A soil horizon is a layer of soil roughly parallel to the surface that differs from adjacent layers in color, texture, and structure, forming the soil profile.

Soil improvement

Soil improvement: agricultural and geotechnical practices, from organic amendments, cover crops, and salinity reclamation to cement, MICP, and geopolymer stabilization, used to restore degraded soils and strengthen ground.

Soil incubation experiments

A soil incubation experiment is a laboratory method in which soil is held under controlled temperature and moisture while carbon or nitrogen mineralization is measured.

Soil liquefaction

Soil liquefaction is a phenomenon where saturated, loose granular soils, like sands and silts, temporarily lose strength and behave as viscous fluids under rapid or static loading.

Soil mechanics

Soil mechanics is the branch of applied mechanics that predicts the performance of earth structures and foundations from soil properties, founded by Karl Terzaghi in 1925.

Soil moisture

Soil moisture, also called soil water content, is the amount of water held in the soil, a driver of soil processes and a key variable in agriculture, hydrology, and meteorology.

Soil nailing

Soil nailing is a geotechnical construction method that reinforces in-place soil with steel bars drilled and grouted into a slope or excavation face, stabilizing cuts built from the top down.

Soil pH

Soil pH, also known as soil acidity or soil reaction, measures how acid or alkaline a soil is and controls which nutrients plants can take up.

Soil resistivity

Soil resistivity is the measure of how strongly soil resists conducting electrical current, a basic parameter for grounding, lightning protection, and corrosion control of buried structures.

Soil salinity

Soil salinity, or the accumulation of salts in saline soils, impairs plant growth on over 1,381 million hectares worldwide; irrigation without leaching and drainage is a leading cause.

Soil science

Soil science is the study of soils as a natural resource, covering how they form, their classification and mapping, and their physical, chemical, and biological properties.

Soil sealing

Soil sealing is the covering of ground by impermeable materials such as asphalt or concrete, considered a major and nearly irreversible cause of soil degradation in the European Union.

Soil solarization

Soil solarization: nonchemical disinfestation of moist soil under transparent plastic film for 4-6 weeks in hot seasons, heating soil 2-15 C to kill pathogens, nematodes, and weed seeds; often combined with amendments, steam, or fumigants.

Soil stabilization

Soil stabilization is a geotechnical method that improves the strength and durability of weak soils by blending soil gradations or mixing in additives like lime, cement, fly ash, or bitumen.

Soil survey

A soil survey is a field method in which soils across a landscape are examined, mapped, and classified to predict their suitability and limitations for land uses.

Soil texture

Soil texture, also called soil texture classification, is the relative proportion by weight of sand, silt, and clay in a soil, read on the USDA textural triangle.

Soil type

A soil type is a class of soil defined by properties such as texture, color, and structure, classified in systems like USDA Soil Taxonomy and the WRB.

Soil vapor extraction

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is an in situ remediation technology that applies a vacuum to wells to draw volatile organic compounds out of unsaturated soil for treatment.

Soil water retention curve

The soil water retention curve, or soil water characteristic curve, relates the water a soil holds to its matric potential, a key property for irrigation and drainage design.

Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus

Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV), a furovirus, infects wheat, rye, barley, and triticale via Polymyxa graminis zoospores; bipartite ssRNA genome, type member of Furovirus, first described 1919, controlled mainly by resistant cultivars.

Soil–structure interaction analysis

Soil–structure interaction (SSI) analysis is an engineering method modeling how soil deformation and stiffness modify a structure's seismic response, using direct or substructure methods, notably for nuclear power plants.

Sep 19, 2026

Soilent Green

Soilent Green is an American sludge, death metal, and grindcore band from New Orleans, Louisiana, formed in 1988 and known for blending grindcore with bluesy Southern rock.

Oct 20, 2026

Soiling

Soiling, also called encopresis or fecal incontinence, is the passage of faeces into clothing or inappropriate places after the age of expected continence, usually from constipation with overflow leakage, treatable with laxatives and behavior modification.

Soilwork

Soilwork (Inferior Breed) is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Helsingborg formed in 1995 by Björn "Speed" Strid and Peter Wichers; twelve albums from Steelbath Suicide (1998) to Övergivenheten (2022), including the first melodeath double album.