Editing Ecology (section)

==== Soils ====
{{main|Soil ecology}}

Soil is the living top layer of mineral and organic dirt that covers the surface of the planet. It is the chief organizing centre of most ecosystem functions, and it is of critical importance in agricultural science and ecology. The [[decomposition]] of dead organic matter (for example, leaves on the forest floor), results in soils containing [[minerals]] and nutrients that feed into plant production. The whole of the planet's soil ecosystems is called the [[pedosphere]] where a large biomass of the Earth's biodiversity organizes into trophic levels. Invertebrates that feed and shred larger leaves, for example, create smaller bits for smaller organisms in the feeding chain. Collectively, these organisms are the [[detritivore]]s that regulate soil formation.<ref name="Coleman04"/><ref name="Wilkinson09"/> Tree roots, fungi, bacteria, worms, ants, beetles, centipedes, spiders, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other less familiar creatures all work to create the trophic web of life in soil ecosystems. 

Soils form composite phenotypes where inorganic matter is enveloped into the physiology of a whole community. As organisms feed and migrate through soils they physically displace materials, an ecological process called [[bioturbation]]. This aerates soils and stimulates heterotrophic growth and production. Soil [[microorganisms]] are influenced by and are fed back into the trophic dynamics of the ecosystem. No single axis of causality can be discerned to segregate the biological from geomorphological systems in soils.<ref name="Phillips09">{{cite journal| last1=Phillips| first1=J. D.| year=2009| title=Soils as extended composite phenotypes| volume=149| issue=1–2| pages=143–151| journal=Geoderma| doi=10.1016/j.geoderma.2008.11.028| bibcode=2009Geode.149..143P}}</ref><ref name="Reinhard10">{{cite journal| last1=Reinhardt| first1=L.| last2=Jerolmack| first2=D.| last3=Cardinale| first3=B. J.| last4=Vanacker| first4=V.| last5=Wright| first5=J.| title=Dynamic interactions of life and its landscape: Feedbacks at the interface of geomorphology and ecology| journal=Earth Surface Processes and Landforms| volume=35| issue=1| pages=78–101| doi=10.1002/esp.1912| url=http://snre.umich.edu/cardinale/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/reinhardt_earthsur_2010.pdf| bibcode=2010ESPL...35...78R| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317140954/http://snre.umich.edu/cardinale/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/reinhardt_earthsur_2010.pdf| archive-date=17 March 2015| year=2010| s2cid=14924423| access-date=2 January 2015}}</ref> [[Paleoecology|Paleoecological]] studies of soils places the origin for bioturbation to a time before the Cambrian period. Other events, such as the [[Tree#Evolutionary history|evolution of trees]] and the [[colonization of land]] in the Devonian period played a significant role in the early development of ecological trophism in soils.<ref name="Wilkinson09"/><ref name="Davic04"/><ref name="Hasiotis03"/>