Soils Perform Valuable Watershed Functions

Within a watershed, soil performs important functions, including regulating the movement of precipitation into surface water and groundwater reservoirs. In a system devoid of soil, all precipitation would either evaporate back into the atmosphere from the rock surface, or run off into a surface water reservoir. Under these conditions, all nutrients or pollutants encountered by the water droplets would end up in the water reservoir. Soils mediate these processes, enabling water to be stored and nutrients and pollutants to be filtered.