Environmental Studies and Forestry Response Essays

The Scoop on Dirt

Jones (2006) finds microbes found in the soil to be critical in maintaining the soil. These microbes have multiple functions in the soil. Jones notes that soil microbes are critical in recycling carbon. Apparently, the soil contains twice as much carbon as that which is found in the atmosphere. These microbes help in binding the carbon in the soil, which in return helps maintain the soil structure. Without carbon, the soil would crumble making it almost impossible for plants to thrive, microbes and other living organisms in the soil to exist in such an environment. Water and air would be limited and thus affecting the health of the soil in general.

Microbes play a critical role in recycling dead animal and plant matter (Jones, 2006). Without these microbes and their critical function, no animal or plant, which has died or shed its leaves, would ever decay. This would lead to a pile up of plants and animals leading to littering of the environment. The function of microbes on dead plants and animal matter leads to conversion of inherent nutrients, which in return edify the soil and thus completing the nutrition cycle (Ashman and Puri, 2002).

Research by Kertesz and Mirleau (2004) indicate that microbes are essential in bonding sulphur to carbon in the soil to form inorganic sulphate. This is followed by microbes conducting rapid immobilization of this sulphate to form sulphate esters and carbon-bound sulphur. Although research is yet to identify any particular microbial species responsible for conversion and recycling of sulphur, evidence indicate that the rate of sulphur conversion is dependent on the number of microbes in the soil and their rate of metabolism.

The Fifth Amendment and Taking without Compensati...

... middle of paper ...

...ironmental Land Use and Planning and Management: Creating Sustainable Communities, Watersheds, and Ecosystems – 2nd Edition. Island Press: Washington. ISBN 1-59726-730-9.

Scherer, D. (1990). Upstream/ Downstream: Issues in environmental ethics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Stop the Beach Renourishment Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. (2014). The Oyez project as IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Retrieved May 28, 2014 from http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2009/2009_08_1151

Sulzman, E. W. (2000). Understanding global change: Earth Science and human impacts - The carbon cycle. Global Change Instruction Program - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: Boulder, CO.

Treanor, W. M. (1985). The origins and original significance of the just compensation clause of the fifth amendment. Georgetown: Georgetown University Law Center.