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Soil Intro and Chemistry (Soil Profile (Can be subdivided even further…
Soil Intro and Chemistry
What is soil?
The collection of natural bodies on earth’s surface containing living matter and supporting, or capable of supporting plants. Its upper limit is the atmosphere (air) or water, and at its lateral margins it grades to deep water or barren areas of rock and ice. Its lower limit is normally considered to be the lower limit of the common rooting zone (root zone) of the native perennial plants, a boundary that is shallow in the deserts and tundra and deep in the humid tropics.
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Polypedon: a parcel of contiguous pedons all of which have characteristics lying within the defined limits of a single soil series. Pedons may be considered as building blocks that make up both soil taxonomic classes and soil mapping units.
Pedon: single section: Smallest unit or volume of soil that contains all the soil horizons of a particular soil type. It usually has a surface area of approximately 1 sq m and extends from the ground surface down to bedrock
Pedon: sufficient area (roughly 1 to 10 m2) and depth (up to 200 cm) to be used in describing the internal arrangement of horizons and in collecting representative samples for laboratory analysis.
Soil Profile
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width of a profile ranges from a few decimeters to several meters or more. The size of the profile should be sufficient to include the largest structural units.
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B Horizon: Subsoil
Denser than A Horizon, more mineral content, lower fertility
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Organic O H: Can form above mineral soil - common in forest soils resulting from dead plant and animal remains
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Eluviation is the transport of soil material from upper layers of soil to lower levels by downward precipitation of water across soil horizons, and accumulation of this material (illuvial deposit) in lower levels is called illuviation.
Components
Mineral matter easy to analyse - biggest bit, rocks, clays.
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Air fills spaces, can contain large quantities of nutrients
Plant roots can only take up nutrients if dissolved in water. Nutrients in solid form cannot be used.
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Organic matter: When plant litter etc is broken down; OM, useful.