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by InclinedPlane 4960 days ago
This is factually inaccurate. Plants are not built out of soil, they are built out of air and water, the contribution from the soil is comparatively minor. Especially if symbiotic mycorrhiza are in play in which case only a tiny handful of minerals and phosphorous is pulled from the ground. The great bulk of the mass of a tree is cellulose and lignin, and that comes straight out of photosynthesis and from atmospheric CO2 and ground water.