World Soil Museum WSM

Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. Explanation on how to use the player and find the locations in the museum associated with each section of the audio tour.

Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. Word of welcome by Head of the World Soil Museum and curator, Mr. Stephan Mantel and short introduction to the audio tour.

Soils are truly wonderful! They are the major support systems of human life and welfare. They provide anchorage for roots and hold water and nutrients, long enough for plants and micro-organisms to make use of them. In fact, most of the land’s biodiversity lives in the soil, not above ground. This audio tour guides you along the beautiful soils of our planet. From the red soils of the African Savanna to the black soils of the Russian grass steppes.

Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. Colour is one of the most outstanding properties of soil. The use of soil as a natural colouring agent, applied in visual art, the decoration of building, or as body paint, dates back to ancient times.

Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. Soils are the basis for agriculture. Man manipulates soils and landscapes for the purpose of producing food. Management that affects the properties of soil are practices such as drainage, ploughing, irrigation, land levelling and fertilization. This part of the audio tour discussed soils that pose limitations to farming and soils that have been changed by management.

Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. This part of the audio tour is dedicated to time as a factor in the formation of soils. Soils are not stable, they continue to change over time. We can say that soils go through development phases. So we may speak of young soils and of old soils.