Soil and Plant Nutrition

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms related to soil composition, plant nutrition, and relationships with other organisms.

Soil Texture

Soil particles are classified by size, from largest to smallest they are called sand, silt, and clay.

Loams

The most fertile top soils and contain equal amounts of sand, silt, and clay.

Cation Exchange

Cations are displaced from soil particles by other cations, particularly H+, allowing plant roots to absorb released cations.

Humus

Builds a crumbly soil that retains water but is still porous, increasing the soil’s capacity to exchange cations and serves as a reservoir of mineral nutrients.

Sustainable Agriculture

The goal is to use farming methods that are conservation-minded, environmentally safe, and profitable.

Land Subsidence

The settling or sinking of land due to the depleting of aquifers from irrigation.

Commercial Fertilizers

Enriched in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Phytoremediation

A biological, nondestructive technology that reclaims contaminated areas using plants and associated bacteria to extract soil pollutants.

Essential Elements

Seventeen chemical elements required for a plant to complete its life cycle and reproduce.

Macronutrients

Essential elements that plants require in relatively large amounts, including carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, calcium, and magnesium.

Micronutrients

Essential elements that plants need in very small amounts, including chlorine, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, nickel, and molybdenum.

Rhizosphere

The layer of soil closely surrounding the plant’s roots.

Rhizobacteria

Free-living bacteria that occupy the rhizosphere.

Endophytes

Nonpathogenic bacteria that live between the cells of host plant tissues.

Nitrogen Fixation

The conversion of nitrogen from N2 to NH3 by nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Mycorrhizae

Mutualistic associations of fungi and roots where the fungus increases the surface area for water uptake and mineral absorption for the plant.

Ectomycorrhizae

The mycelium of the fungus forms a dense sheath over the surface of the root.

Arbuscular Mycorrhizae

Microscopic fungal hyphae extend into the root and form branched arbuscules within cells, important sites of nutrient transfer.

Epiphytes

Plants that grow on other plants but are not parasitic.

Parasitic Plants

Plants that obtain nutrients from other plants, harming the host plant.

Carnivorous Plants

Plants that supplement their nutrient requirements by trapping and digesting animals.