Wikipedia:WikiProject Soil

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Shortcut WP:SOIL

WikiProject Soil is a project to organize and improve articles related to soil.

Articles maintained by this WikiProject are grouped in Category:WikiProject Soil by using the {{WikiProject Soil}} template.

Soil is defined as:

• The "material that forms at the interface of the atmosphere and the lithosphere which is capable of supporting plant growth" (White 1997).
• A critically important component of the earth's biosphere maintaining local, regional, and world-wide environmental quality (Doran & Parkin, 1994).
• The "different forms of earth on the surface of the rocks, formed by the breaking down or weathering of rocks."
• A "natural body composed of solids (minerals and organic matter), liquid, and gases that occurs on the land surface, occupies space, and is characterized by one or both of the following: horizons, or layers, that are distinguishable from the initial material as a result of additions, losses, transfers, and transformations of energy and matter or the ability to support rooted plants in a natural environment."
• The granular material on the surface of other celestial bodies. Lunar soil and Martian soil are terms in general use that fit within the context of this project.

Soil articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	???	Total
GA			2	2			4
B	11	16	25	30		8	90
C	12	27	79	93		14	225
Start	3	23	131	362		58	577
Stub			16	232		46	294
List		1	3	8			12
Template					4		4
NA		1	7	17	185		210
Assessed	26	68	263	744	189	126	1,416
Unassessed						33	33
Total	26	68	263	744	189	159	1,449
WikiWork factors (?)		ω = 5,826			Ω = 4.90

Articles to be split

• 13 Jul 2023 – Swamp (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Otto S. Knottnerus (t · c); see discussion
• 23 Mar 2019 – Tillage (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Ma3r (t · c); see discussion

Articles for creation

• 20 Mar 2025 – Draft:Tabia (building material) (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Zhidongz (t · c)

1. Verify content. Use reliable sources per WP:SCIRS. Read this Signpost editorial.
2. Improve soils-related content at Wikipedia. See Suggested WikiProject Soil Tasks.
3. Assess soil-related articles for quality and importance. See Assessment Department and Change Log. Use {{WikiProject Soil}}.
4. Monitor for vandalism and substandard edits. You can narrow your efforts to monitoring your most active category.
5. Upload public domain soils images from USDA and USGS to Commons:Category:Soils. image source list • upload link
6. Collaborate on soil article tasks identified at WikiProject Ecology, WikiProject Geology and WikiProject Ecoregions.

See recent soil article editors

those making at least five edits to an article in the WikiProject's subject area within a 30-day period, excluding bots.

New participants, please add your name to this list:

• Paleorthid (talk · contribs)
• MarkZusab (talk · contribs)
• Epipelagic (talk · contribs)
• Guettarda (talk · contribs)
• Wil540 art (talk · contribs)
• eh.ebrahimi (talk · contribs)
• MicrobiologyMarcus (talk · contribs)

• January 2019 - subscribed project to article alerts.
• May 2016 - started Template:Soil science topics
• May 2010 - template:Infobox soil has been created by Chiton magnificus. Feel free to modify it and to add it to soil articles.
• April 2008 - Two public domain soil profile photographs, uploaded by briefly active User:Jimjet, deleted as unsourced. Jimjet did not specify that he took the photographs as an employee of USDA, and he did not respond to dispute their removal. Deleted photos were of George Demas (Image:GeorgeDemas.png), and a Paxton (soil) profile (Image:Paxton Soil.jpg).
• December 1 2007 - Category:Soil created.
• September 17 2007 - Soil de-listed from good article status due to lack of breadth and a bias towards soil science.
• February 10 2007 - Soil achieves good article status.
• September 15 2006 - Soil is tagged as a Class A article for Wikipedia version 0.5 by Titoxd.
• September 13 2006 - Soil improved substantially in response to comments made during FAC consideration between September 4 and September 13.

The parents of this WikiProject are Portal:Earth sciences and WikiProject Science.

WikiProjects

• Agriculture
• Biology
• Ecoregions
• Ecology
• Environment
• Geography
• Geology

Portals

• Portal:Geography
• Portal:Science
  • Portal:Agriculture and Agronomy
  • Portal:Earth sciences
  • Portal:History of science

See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Soil/Templates

• {{WikiProject Soil}} Posted to article talk page. Generates placement within an article assessment category structure.
• {{soil}} redirects to {{WikiProject Soil}}.
• {{soil type}} infobox template.
• {{soil-sci-stub}} Posted to article. Stub articles relating to soil science.
• {{soil-stub}} Posted to article. Stub articles relating to soil materials and soil resources. Under development. Currently redirects to {{soil-sci-stub}}.
• {{subst:SoilWelcome|yourusername}}. Posted to new Wikipedia user talk page.
• {{subst:SoilWelcome-anon|yourusername}} Posted to new anon user talk page.
• {{subst:SoilGreeting-new|yourusername}} Posted to user talk page.
• {{subst:SoilGreeting-exp|yourusername}} Posted to experienced user's talk page.