Notes

Under your feet soil, sand, and everything underground
64 pages
colour illustrations.
Cover subtitle: Soil, sand, and everything underground. Published in association with the Royal Horticultural Society. Contents: Why do we need soil? -- Global warming -- The stuff of soil -- Soil horizons -- Soil city -- Shoots and roots -- Growing food -- A worm's work -- Decomposing -- Dry soil -- Soggy soil -- Beautiful boglands -- Sun, wind, and rain -- Awake at night -- Fungus kingdom -- Wonderful worms -- Marvellous moles -- Burrowers -- Spineless invertebrates -- Ant nations -- Tiny life -- Microbes in action -- All that glitters -- Ground around the world -- Soil to sand -- Moon dust -- Can plants grow on Mars? -- Be a soil scientist -- Looking after soil.
Summary: This book takes you under the surface and explores the diverse wonders of the mysterious world hidden underground. Encounter incredible creatures that could be from another planet, including the star-faced mole and worms as big as snakes, and marvel at the humongous fungus - the biggest organism in the world. Discover all the stuff you never knew about the world under your feet, from what exactly soil is made of to the creepy crawly creatures who make it their home. Learn how one handful of ordinary soil contains more organisms than there are people on Earth, and carry out experiments using dirt from your back garden. Soil is essential to life on Earth, and this book explains exactly how it impacts different areas of our lives - from the link between soil and climate change, to growing the food that we eat, and why we need to protect the ground.