SOILS IN NORTH AMERICA

O Horizon: (1st layer) This is the top layer of soil. Animals live on this layer. It is made of fresh to partially decomposed organic matters. The color varies from brown to black.

A Horizon: (2nd layer) The top part of this soil is made of highly decomposed organic matter mixed up. The color range from brown to gray.

E Horizon: (3rd layer) This layer is made up of mostly sand and silt it have lost most of its minerals and clay due to eluviation.

B Horizon: (4th layer) Unlike the other horizons, this one has more clay and bigger bedrock. It is reddish brown or tan in color.

C Horizon: (5th layer) This layer have mostly weathered bedrock. It is the cracked and broken surface of the bedrock.

R Horizon: (Last Layer) This is the last layer in the profile. It is made of unweathered rocks.

 

The central concept of Mollisols is that of soils that have a dark colored surface horizon and are base rich. Nearly all have a mollic epipedon. Many also have an argillic or natric horizon or a calcic horizon. A few have an albic horizon. Some also have a duripan or a petrocalic horizon.

The central concept of Vertisols is that of soils that have a high content of expending clay and that have at some time of the year deep wide cracks. They shrink when drying and swell when they become wetter.

The central concept of Spodosols is that of soils in which amorphous mixtures of organic matter and aluminum, with or without iron, have accumulated. In undisturbed soils there is normally an overlying eluvial horizon, generally gray to light gray in color, that has the color of more or less uncoated quartz.

Most Spodosols have little silicate clay. The particle-size class is mostly sandy, sandy-skeletal, coarse-loamy, loamy, loamy- skeletal, or coarse-silty.

The central concept of Histosols is that of soils that are dominantly organic. They are mostly soils that are commonly called bogs, moors, or peats and mucks.

A soil is classified as Histosols if it does not have permafrost and is dominated by organic soil materials.

The central concept of Aridisols is that of soils that are too dry for mesophytic plants to grow. They have either:(1) an aridic moisture regime and an ochric or anthropic epipedon and one or more of the following with an upper boundry within 100 cm of the soil surface: a calcic, cambic, gypsic, natric, petrocalcic petrogypsic, or a salic horizon or a duripan or an argillic horizon, or(2)A salic horizon and saturation with water within 100 cm of the soil surface for one month or more in normal years.An aridic moisture regime is one that in normal years has no water available for plants for more than half the cumulative time that the soil temperature at 50 cm below the surface is >5° C. and has no period as long as 90 consecutive days when there is water available for plants while the soil temperature at 50 cm is continuously >8° C.

The central concept of Entisols is that of soils that have little or no evidence of development of pedogenic horizons. Many Entisols have an ochric epipedon and a few have an anthropic epipedon. Many are sandy or very shallow.

The central concept of Alfisols is that of soils that have an argillic, a kandic, or a natric horizon and a base saturation of 35% or greater. They typically have an ochric epipedon, but may have an umbric epipedon. They may also have a petrocalcic horizon, a fragipan or a duripan.

The central concept of Inceptisols is that of soils of humid and subhumid regions that have altered horizons that have lost bases or iron and aluminum but retain some weatherable minerals. They do not have an illuvial horizon enriched with either silicate clay or with an amorphous mixture of aluminum and organic carbon.

The Inceptisols may have many kinds of diagnostic horizons, but argillic, natric kandic, spodic and oxic horizons are excluded.

The central concept of Oxisols is that of soils of the tropical and subtropical regions. They have gentle slopes on surfaces of great age. They are mixtures of quartz, kaolin, free oxides, and organic matter. For the most part they are nearly featureless soils without clearly marked horizons. Differences in properties with depth are so gradual that horizon boundaries are generally arbitrary.

The central concept of Gelisols is that of soils that have permafrost within 100 cm of the soil surface and/or have gelic materials within 100 cm of the soil surface and have permafrost within 200 cm.

Gelic materials are mineral or organic soil materials that have evidence of cryoturbation (frost churning) and/or ice segeration in the active layer (seasonal thaw layer) and/or the upper part of the permafrost.

color texture

tilth water-holding capacity

drainage depth slope

There are five factors that affect soil formation: Time

Climate Parent Material

Biology Topography

Physical Properties of Soil

-PUT FILTER IN FUNNEL-DRY MATERIAL IN FUNNEL-PUT FUNNEL IN NARROW TOP BEAKER

-PUT 40ml WATER IN CLEAR BEAKER -POUR OVER SOIL SAMPLE WITHIN 10 SECONDS -RECORD VOLUME EVERY 30 SECONDS FOR 5 MINUTES -AFTER 2 MINUTES ADD SECOND 40 ml WATER

-AFTER 10 MINUTES RECORD WATER VOLUME-PUT INFORMATION ON CHART

INFILTRATIONPERMEABILITYPOROSITYSOIL MOISTURE

-GRIND -SIFT (FILL CLEAR DISK FULL/LEVELED)

(MAKE A SECOND PILE IN TRAY) -DAMPEN (WET NOT SHINY) -MAKE MARBLE SIZE BALL

RIBBON - LENGTH?SQUISH - EASY/HARD RESISTANCE?ROLL - SLIPPERY/GRITTY/STIFF?STICKY - ADHESION?

MARK SOIL NUMBER AND VOLUME EVERY 30 SECONDS (MAKE DOT AND CONNECT AS LINE ON GRAPH)VOLUME 25

ml

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SECONDS> 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300MINUTES> 1m 2m 3m 4m 5m

PAIL # 80 ml (IN) TOTAL OUT TOTAL OUT VOLUME AVERAGE 5 MINUTES 10 MINUTES STILL IN SOIL RATE PER MINUTE 1 80 ml (IN)2 80 ml (IN)3 80 ml (IN)4 80 ml (IN) 5 80 ml (IN) 6 80 ml (IN) 7 80 ml (IN) 8 80 ml (IN) 9 80 ml (IN)

10 80 ml (IN)

INFILTRATIONPERMEABILITYPOROSITYSOIL MOISTURE

MARK SOIL NUMBER AND VOLUME EVERY 30 SECONDS (MAKE DOT AND CONNECT AS LINE ON GRAPH)

VOLUME 25

ml

20

15

10

5

4

3

2

1

0

SECONDS> 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300

MINUTES> 1m 2m 3m 4m 5m