Soil Classification: Outline

Soils and Water, Spring 2008 Soil Classification: Outline • • • • Introduction Soil moisture regimes Soil temperature regimes The Soil Taxonomy – Di...
Author: Gabriel Boone
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Soils and Water, Spring 2008

Soil Classification: Outline • • • •

Introduction Soil moisture regimes Soil temperature regimes The Soil Taxonomy – Diagnostic horizons – soil orders

Also see this article in the New Yor Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/opinion/11fri4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Why Classify? • Organize knowledge in an attempt to find order in soils. • Help dealing with large number of objects/concepts/ideas. • Enable the collection of new knowledge. • Facilitate the optimal use of soils (applied objective). • Understand the distribution and functioning of soils (basic objective)

Lecture 10, Soil Classification

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Soils and Water, Spring 2008

Precursors of Present Classification Systems • The development of soil classification systems were based on the concepts of Zonal, Intrazonal, and Azonal soils. – Zonal soils reflect the climate and vegetation under which they developed. – Intrazonal soils have properties dominated by some local factor (e.g., drainage, salts). – Azonal soils have properties corresponding to the parent material (young or highly eroded soils).

Relationship Between Annual Precipitation and C.E.C. for Central USA Modified from Jenny and Leonard (1934, Soil Sci. 38: 363-381)

C.E.C. cmolc/kg

Exchangeable bases Exchangeable H

10

20

30

40

Annual precipitation, inches

Relationship Between N and Rainfall After Jenny and Leonard (1934, Soil Sci. 38: 363-381)

• • • •

Lecture 10, Soil Classification

medium-textured soils soil sampled from 0-25 cm sampled along a isotherm (11°C) vegetation: mostly pastures

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Relationship Between Organic Carbon and Clay Nichols (1984, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 48: 1382-1384

• Sixty-five pedons from Oklahoma, Texas, and Eastern New Mexico. • % OC could be predicted from % clay and mean annual precipitation (R2=0.90). • %OC increase with an increase of clay content and precipitation.

Depth to Calcium Carbonate Accumulation as a Function of Precipitation

After Jenny and Leonard (1934, Soil Sci. 38: 363-381)

Depth = 2.5 (R-12) inches

Soil Moisture Regimes • Aquic: soils with a perched or real groundwater table (gley phenomena). • Udic: soils mostly moist. There may be a short dry season. • Ustic: soils that are moist for more than half a year but have a distinct dry season. • Xeric: soils that are moist for more than half a year but have a dry summer. • Aridic: soils that are dry for more than half a year and never moist for long periods.

Lecture 10, Soil Classification

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Soil Moisture Regimes temperature PE

Udic

precipitation

Ustic

Soil Moisture Regimes temperature

PE

Xeric precipitation

Aridic

Relationship Between N and Temperature After Jenny (1928, J. Amer. Soc. Agronomy 20: 900-921)

• Sampled along a North-South transect of the U.S. Great Plain Region. • Soils developed under prairie grasses.

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Temperature Effect on Amount and Type of Clay Minerals

• • •

Sampled from NJ to GA. Clay content increases with increasing temperatures. The ratio silica/alumina decreases from 4 to 2 for the sequence NJ-GA.

Soil Temperature Regimes • Air and soil temperatures are related. Below depths of 20 m (Alaska), 15 m (mid-latitude), and 10 m (tropics), soil temperature and mean air temperature are similar:

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Soils and Water, Spring 2008

Soil Temperature Regimes • Soil temperature regimes are based on mean annual, mean summer, and mean winter soil temperatures, measured at 50 cm. • There are six soil temperature regimes. Ordered from lower to higher mean annual temperature: Pergelic, Cryic=Frigid, Mesic, Thermic, and Hyperthermic. • Soil temperature regimes are typically used to classify at the lower levels of the Soil Taxonomy.

Types of Soil Classification Systems • Taxonomic systems: based on the natural characteristics of soils, e.g., texture, color, C.E.C., soil temperature and moisture. – Soils are separated into multiple categories (levels) and within each level they are separated into taxa (classes).

• Interpretive systems:based on rearrangement of taxonomic systems for particular uses (e.g., septic tanks, houses with basement, road and streets).

Soil Taxonomy • Soil Taxonomy was developed in the USA for making and interpreting soil surveys mainly for agricultural purposes. • http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/tax_keys/ contains the “Keys to Soil Taxonomy” (2006). • The Soil Taxonomy has six levels, each with a variable number of classes: Order Suborder

12 63

Great group

~250

Subgroup

~1,400

Family Series

~8,000 ~19,000

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Soil Orders See http://soils.ag.uidaho.edu/soilorders/ Name

Formative element

Alfisols Andisols Aridisols Entisols Gelisols Histosols Inceptisols Mollisols Oxisols Spodosols Ultisols Vertisols

alf and id ent el ist ept oll ox od ult ert

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Soil Type and Population Name

Alfisols Andisols Aridisols Entisols Gelisols Histosols Inceptisols Mollisols Oxisols Spodosols Ultisols Vertisols

%Global Population (1990)

1700

Population (millions)

15.9 1.6 5.1 14.4 0.4 0.5 25.7 5.9 3.5 1.5 16.7 5.3

142.7 11.1 34.3 129.6 11.4 4.1 291.1 32.1 25.1 17.6 119.5 40.2

% Increase

1990

918.3 93.3 292.0 830.8 22.5 31.4 1480.4 342.2 199.2 86.8 959.4 307.2

85 88 88 84 50 87 80 91 87 80 87 87

Soil Type and People Population Density (persons/km2)

140 Alfisols

120

Andisols Aridisols

100

Entisols Gelisols

80

Histosols Inceptisols

60

Population density in NJ

Mollisols Oxisols

40

Spodosols Ultisols

20 0 1650

Vertisols

1700

1750

1800

1850

1900

1950

2000

Year

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Pressure on the Soil Resource Population by Soil Order, % of total

30

Andisols

Inceptisols 25

20

Ultisols

15

5

Entisols

Alfisols

10

Histosols

Mollisols Aridisols

Vertisols

Gelisols

0 0

Spodosols

5

10

15

20

25

30

Are a by Soil Orde r, % of tota l

Oxisols

Other Soil Classification Systems • Highly man-influenced soils. Examples of materials of interest include: – Garbic: organic wastes of human activities. – Spolic: inorganic material moved during surface mining, highway construction, etc. – Scalped land surfaces: freshly exposed materials. – Dredge materials: from waterways. – Old garden/farm soils.

Aridisols

• Aridisols are soils of arid regions that exhibit at least a minimal amount of subsurface horizon development. They are characterized by being dry most of the year. • Aridisols contain subsurface horizons in which clays, calcium carbonate, silica, salts, and/or gypsum have accumulated.

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Mollisols

• Mollisols are the soils of grassland ecosystems. They are characterized by a thick, dark surface horizon ( mollic epipedon) and high base saturation. • Mollisols primarily occur in the middle latitudes and are among some of the most important and productive agricultural soils in the world.

Alfisols

• Alfisols are well developed forest soils with a subsurface horizon in which clays have accumulated. • Alfisols are mostly found in temperate humid and subhumid regions of the world. • Alfisols are very productive soils for agriculture and silviculture.

Ultisols

• Ultisols are acid soils formed under forest vegetation. They are found in humid temperate and tropical areas of the world, typically on old, stable landscapes. • Ultisols exhibit very strong horizon development and have a subsurface horizon in which clays have accumulated.

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Soils and Water, Spring 2008

Spodosols

• Spodosols often occur under coniferous forest in cool, moist climates. Usually of coarse texture. • Spodosols are acid soils characterized by a subsurface accumulation of humus and Al & Fe oxides. • Spodosols typically have a light-colored E horizon overlying a reddish-brown spodic horizon.

Oxisols

• Oxisols are very highly weathered soils that are found primarily in the inter tropical regions of the world. • These soils contain few weatherable minerals and are often rich in Fe and Al oxide minerals. Extreme low levels of native fertility. • Very productive soils with inputs of lime and fertilizers.

Inceptisols

• Inceptisols are soils that exhibit minimal horizon development and have diagnostic horizons that form rapidly, e.g.cambic horizon. • Inceptisols occur under a wide range of environmental settings (e.g., steep slopes, young geomorphic surfaces, and on resistant parent materials).

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Entisols

• Entisols are soils developed in unconsolidated parent material with usually no genetic horizons except an A horizon. • All soils that do not fit into one of the other eleven orders are Entisols. • The result is that the Entisol order is characterized by great diversity.

Vertisols

• Vertisols are clay-rich soils that shrink and swell with changes in moisture content (usually located in areas with a seasonal dry period). • Because of the shrink/swell activity of these soils, they often do not have distinct, well-developed horizons.

Andisols

• Andisols are soils that have formed in volcanic ash or other volcanic ejecta. • As a result, Andisols possess unique chemical and physical properties:

– very high water-holding capacity – ability to 'fix' (and make unavailable to plants) large quantities of phosphorus.

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Histosols

• Soils composed mainly of organic materials. They contain at least 20-30% organic matter by weight . • Histosols typically form in settings where poor drainage inhibits the decomposition of plant and animal remains, allowing these organic materials to accumulate over time. Histosols are often referred to as peats and mucks.

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