What's the difference between soil and subsoil?

Soil


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an inclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse.
  • (n.) The upper stratum of the earth; the mold, or that compound substance which furnishes nutriment to plants, or which is particularly adapted to support and nourish them.
  • (n.) Land; country.
  • (n.) Dung; faeces; compost; manure; as, night soil.
  • (v. t.) To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
  • (n.) A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
  • (n.) To make dirty or unclean on the surface; to foul; to dirty; to defile; as, to soil a garment with dust.
  • (n.) To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
  • (v. i.) To become soiled; as, light colors soil sooner than dark ones.
  • (n.) That which soils or pollutes; a soiled place; spot; stain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The disappearance of the herbicide, Avadex (40% diallate), from five agricultural soils (differing in either pH, carbon content, or nitrogen content), incubated under sterile and non-sterile conditions, was followed for a period of 20 weeks.
  • (2) The remaining 5 soil samples, obtained from sites that were not in close proximity to lakes, were also negative except for one that contained type B.
  • (3) One ejaculation followed by daily contact with soiled bedding taken from a male's cage did not increase pregnancy rates.
  • (4) Fourteen soil bacteriophages active against Rhizobium trifolii W19 have been studied which fall into four structural groups.
  • (5) Recoveries of these 3 herbicides added to soil, wheat, and barley samples at 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 ppm levels were between 65 and 93%.
  • (6) The hypothesis was tested that plaque, as a complex soil comprising microorganisms, cell debris, salivary deposits and other ill-defined organic and inorganic components, would be susceptible to removal by a rinse with high detersive action.
  • (7) While undoubtedly a good understanding of soil microbiology in terms of pedology exists, little is presently known about unsaturated subsoils, and aquifers.
  • (8) The behavior and effects of atmospheric emissions in soils and plants are discussed.
  • (9) The first stop in this arid place of poor farms and orchards clinging to the dry soil is Rafah, cut off by the border from its Palestinian counterpart.
  • (10) Although selenium deficiency in livestock is consequently now rare in Oregon, selenium-deficient soils and attendant selenium deficiency conditions have been reported near the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in the Northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, California, where, paradoxically, selenium toxicity in wildfowl, nesting near evaporation ponds, occurred and attracted wide attention.
  • (11) It is now recognized that dwarfism in males is frequent around the Mediterranean, where wheat is the staple of life and has been grown for 4,000 years on the same soil, thereby resulting in the depletion of zinc.
  • (12) The influence of salt mixtures consisting of Ca(H2PO4)2, trace elements, CaSO4, CaCO3, Na2CO3, NaCl and K2SO4 in different combinations on the nitrifying power, evolution of carbon dioxide and the total number of bacteria was studied in arid soils (sandy and alluvial) and semi-humid ones (chernozem and rendzina).
  • (13) High concentrations of mercury, cadmium, and lead have also been observed in urban soils.
  • (14) Two long-term tillage studies on fine-textured, clay loam soils were sampled in July and November 1977 following 2 years of limited rainfall.
  • (15) Adult Persian lime trees grafted on Citrus macrophylla and C. volkameriana were used, planted on a groundwater-affected red ferrilytic soil in the La Habana Province.
  • (16) Recent reports incriminating Acanthamoeba, a small free-living amoeba, wide-spread in environmental soils and waters, in acanthamoebic keratitis cases wearing soft contact lenses, drew attention to cleaning solutions for contact lenses.
  • (17) An enzyme (nitrilase) that converts the herbicide bromoxynil (3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile) to its metabolite 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzoic acid was shown to be plasmid encoded in the natural soil isolate Klebsiella ozaenae.
  • (18) Forty soil samples from different desert localities in Kuwait were surveyed for keratinophilic and geophilic dermatophytic fungi.
  • (19) The well drained soils of the Suiá--Missu forest are very uniform, deep latosols (oxisols) of very dystrophic nature with pH (in water) between 4.0 and 5.0 (see table 2, p. 203).
  • (20) To reduce the risks posed by the hazard, the report recommends that a management plan be created to determine the level of soil contamination and for managing excavated soil, and to decommission disused septic tanks to prevent the spread of contamination.

Subsoil


Definition:

  • (n.) The bed, or stratum, of earth which lies immediately beneath the surface soil.
  • (v. t.) To turn up the subsoil of.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While undoubtedly a good understanding of soil microbiology in terms of pedology exists, little is presently known about unsaturated subsoils, and aquifers.
  • (2) The burrows of R. opimus were the main shelters and breeding places of the sandflies, but infection was not transmitted equally in all burrows.It was known that the distribution of sandflies within the burrows was influenced by the humidity in the different parts of the burrow and a survey showed that the highest rate of infection of gerbils occurred in the burrows in those areas with the highest subsoil moisture content.Studies of the prevalence of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis among people in the settlements of the Murghab oasis showed that the years with the highest infection rate were also years with slightly higher rainfall and lower air temperatures in this area.
  • (3) For the population living on the ground floor of a house with a crystalline subsoil, the gamma radiation and the indoor air 222Rn lead to estimated mean exposures of 1.16 mSv and 9.44 mSv effective dose equivalent per year, respectively.
  • (4) A mean tap water 222Rn content of 38.3 Bq L-1 and 10.4 Bq L-1 was measured in 31 villages with a crystalline subsoil and 73 villages with a sedimentary subsoil, respectively.
  • (5) The external gamma radiation and the indoor air Rn (222Rn) concentration were measured in 55 houses of the South East Grisons, the Urseren valley, and the Upper Rhine valley (crystalline subsoils) and in 39 houses of the Molasse basin and the Helvetic nappes (sedimentary subsoils).
  • (6) The radon-222 emanation from 70 samples of Danish soils, subsoils, and sedimentary rocks has been measured.
  • (7) The cellar 222Rn gas concentration is about six times higher in houses with a crystalline subsoil (1232 Bq m-3) than in houses with a sedimentary subsoil (201 Bq m-3).
  • (8) In homes located on a crystalline subsoil, a mean cellar gamma level of 1.40 mGy y-1 was measured, which is twice the mean gamma level of 0.70 mGy y-1 found in homes built on a sedimentary subsoil.
  • (9) In houses with a sedimentary subsoil, these mean exposures lead to 0.68 mSv y-1 and 3.22 mSv y-1, respectively.
  • (10) Control sweet clover was harvested from gravelly subsoil and processed and fed to another group of guinea pigs for the same period.
  • (11) Reliable identification of trace amounts of pesticides (e.g., 28 ppt of atrazine) in subsoil, surface and drinking water is clearly demonstrated by AMD-HPTLC using a polarity gradient based on dichloromethane.
  • (12) Environmental parameters such as temperature and wind, occupant activities, and house-specific parameters such as subsoil geology, leakiness of the substructure to soil gas, and air exchange rate are the main factors influencing Rn entry into a building and its subsequent indoor behavior.
  • (13) Samples of fly ash, gravelly subsoil, sweet clover, liver, kidneys, and left-rear gastrocnemius muscle of all guinea pigs were freeze-dried and analyzed for 35 elements by neutron activation analysis.
  • (14) Houses located on a granite, ortho-gneiss or verrucano subsoil have a cellar 222Rn level that is on the average 4.4 times higher than houses which are built on grey-schist or sediments.
  • (15) No residues were found below a cracked light clay on a sandy subsoil.
  • (16) In many parts of the world, the land is also sinking – in Venice’s case, subsoil compaction (a result of industrial exploitation of the surrounding area) lowered the city by 20cm between 1950 and 1970.
  • (17) These metastable precipitates, both organic and inorganic, are readily remobilized on further acidification, and can release aluminium into streams if the solutions are not neutralized in the subsoil.
  • (18) Radon-222 degasing from the tap water into the indoor air leads to an additional exposure of about 0.11 mSv y-1 and 0.03 mSv y-1 in homes with a crystalline subsoil and homes with a sedimentary subsoil, respectively.
  • (19) Since the sixties we have given attention to the problems in the use of pesticides, with regard to organochlorine, we have been investigating either environmental pollution (surface and subsoil water, food, etc.)
  • (20) When it rains or the land floods, the water trickles through the gravel and sand and slowly charges the subsoil.