Soil and Banking

This is about a random thought that crossed my mind as I was running an errand to the bank yesterday afternoon.  I live out in the country and am surrounded by farmland, which is planted to corn or soybeans on any given year.  As I was driving to the bank yesterday I saw that the fields were being plowed as you would expect in the spring, but it was also a very windy day.  What I saw was a lot of wind erosion going on as the plows were going across the fields.  This started my mind wandering perhaps only in a way a soil geek thinks, but I thought I’d share it with you and you can decide how crazy I am – or perhaps how much I am in need of some vacation time?

If you think about it soil and banking have a lot in common.  Maybe someone else has already thought of this, but I haven’t seen it so I started making a list of comparisons in my head, which I have included for your enjoyment below (keep in mind I am not a banker, so this is simplified): 

Bank	Soil
Initial deposit to start an account	Initial soil development - pedogenesis.
Deposits	Additions to the soil such as precipitation, organic matter, dissolved ions, nutrients, windblown or waterborne materials, chemicals/toxins, etc.
Withdrawals	Losses from the soil including nutrients, chemicals, soil particles and organic matter from erosion, loss of carbon from oxidation of organic matter, leaching of materials due to water movement through the soil profile, etc.
Gains - Interest	With the 5 soil forming factors (climate, parent material, topography, time and organisms) soil develops into a mature soil profile with multiple horizons.
Transfer between accounts	Soil processes such as translocation/transfer of clay, organic matter, dissolved ions, calcium carbonate, etc. throughout the soil profile. Also includes transformations within the soil profile due to weathering that leads to chemical or physical changes within the soil.
Automatic deposits	Precipitation, nutrient cycling, organic matter production.
Automatic withdrawals	Base (natural) erosion, hydrogeochemical reactions, leaching and weathering processes.
Investments	Soil and water conservation, nutrient management, sustainable practices.
Changes in investments	Different management practices, disturbances, changes in the environment or ecosystem, changes in land use.
Loans	Harvesting of biomass for food/fiber.
Interest rates	The time it takes for new soil to form and replace soil that is lost.
Market changes	Anthropogenic influences.
Reinvestment	Manure management, nutrient management, etc.
Assets	Soil quality.
Liabilities	Poor management and not understanding soil processes.
Retirement – well planned	Sustainable soil and long-term productivity.
Retirement – poorly planned	Low productivity, sterile soils that are not sustainable for food and fiber production.

And for those not familiar with basic soil processes - a figure below that I used to use in my Soils 101 course at OSU to provide a little insight: