Geograph - photograph every grid square

It is an often overlooked feature of the natural world that the soil accumulates. Year on year a thin layer is added at the end of each growing season, laid down by plant death, stirred up and incorporated by tiny creatures and decay processes.

And it swells from below, too. Expanded by roots, and the vast fungal networks we are only just starting to understand. The soil is a living thing, flowing over once-exposed stones and stumps, given purchase by lichens and mosses.

The ground beneath our feet is possibly the most important part of the biosphere. And so easily overlooked, or abused.