[Retric]

In nature biomass ends up in roughly the same places so this balances out, with crops farmers are removing significant biomass from farmland. The use of fertilizer is in part a consequence of specific plants depleting soil.

Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen which represents the bulk of organic mater is available from air and water, but phosphorus for example gets depleted. Nitrogen fertilizer is something of a special case as extracting it from the atmosphere takes a lot of energy. However, nitrogen fixing bacteria will return it to soil if given time to do so.

The specifics of course get more complicated, sod for example is physically removing layers of soil.