(Describer) Title: The Science of Soil: Why Study Soils?

I think if you have an interest in environmental issues,

(Describer) Ella McKinney:

I think that soils are really the place to start. Everything comes back to soil, and I think that if you can understand those processes, you can help really make a difference.

(Describer) Steven Maestas:

One thing that I really like about my major is that we're protecting not only the environment but public health. Right now I work for the environmental department at NASA, and what we're in charge of is the compliance, the regulatory side of the work that happens at NASA. In USDA, we spend billions of dollars every year on conservation programs,

(Describer) Joel Brown:

and those conservation programs are all directed at improving the quality of life for citizens, in general, and improving the sustainability of agriculture. So, we really have to have a working knowledge of soils that will allow us to understand where to put certain conservation practices and, you know, in any particular landscape which soils we want to treat first or which soils are the most critical.

(Describer) Maestas:

One of the amazing things about soils is they have properties to remove contaminants from water. What I do here on the university is we take soils that are native here to New Mexico, and we try to calculate how much of these contaminants they can absorb. So, what I will do is take a known weight of these soil particles, mix them with an arsenic solution to see how much arsenic that the sand can remove. After the experiment is over and the calculations are made, we also try to desorb the arsenic from the sand to see if we can reuse that sand as another filter media. As a student, I got to participate in a soil survey in Glacier National Park in Montana,

(Describer) McKinney:

and I got to see more of that national park than most people get to see in their entire life. We got to camp out pretty much for 12 weeks. Even just as a science student, it was really cool looking at the processes that form soil, and digging our holes, and characterizing it, and understanding more about the processes that form the park and management in the area. It's neat in the lab when I can take soil, and culture the microbes, and look at them under the scope, and get to see just this world that other people don't get to see. I get to see the crystals forming in the soil, the calcium carbonate crystals. And it's just kind of cool getting to see the processes that make soil do what it does.

(Describer) Ulery:

Soil science is often thought of being just agronomy or farming, but it's more than that. It's about the environment. It's about water storage and purification. It's about climate control. It's about carbon sequestration. Soil is the key to so many different environmental issues, that it's actually the critical zone where a lot of the science has come together and need to be addressed. I really feel that when it comes to science and education, I don't feel like there is a ceiling on that. I think there's always something to be explored, something to be looked at, something to be taught.

(Describer) McKinney:

And what I really like about soils is that it has something-- it has some part of every type of science, and there's literally nothing you can't do with a soils degree.

(Describer) Titles: Video produced in the studios of Media Productions, New Mexico State University. Producer/Editor: Tomilee Turner Videographer: Mike A. Ferrales New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab Copyright 2014 NMSU Board of Regents Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education