Gillian Reily
Soil
First of all, for some reason my camera wont let me upload my pictures onto my computer this week. I'm looking into having the problem fixed and I was hoping to have it done in time to turn my work in but I only have 1 hour left and the tech support people still havent gotten back to me so I had to use an online pictuer of the type of soil I had in my area (silt loam). The URL where I obtained the picture is www.wy.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soilmoisture/image9a.jpg. Sorry for any inconvenience this poses. Now to the questions...
The type of soil that I found on my site reminded me of typical potting soil that would be used to grow plants. This kind of soil is often absorbant, so that it can hold more water for the plant for longer periods of time therefore decreasing the amount of human attention needed. For this reason, I feel that the soil on my site is fairly absorbant which means that water probably doesnt flow over the land as readily as it would in other places. Instead it is probably absorbed and used to grow the various plants seen in the other pictures.
In the area where the soil was collected there were a large number of bugs and an even larger number of weeds, plants and trees. I think that the bugs probably work to break down organic matter such as fallen trees which provide nutrients for the soil which the plants then use to grow.
I think that this soil probabily is pretty unlikely to be eroded in this particular location. For one reason it doesnt rain a terrible amount which means that the soil can probably handle most of the waterfall through absorbtion. However if they do have a particularly rainy season, than maybe some of the soil would be washed off. In this case, it would probably be washed off into the nearby river which is where most of the water flows to from the area. Its loss from the current location could have a devistating effect because it holds all the water and nutrients that the thousands of plants in the area need to grow. On the other hand it might help to fertilize whereever it ends up as eroded soil.
As an ecologist it is important to know about soil texture because it leads to a better understanding of how the animals, plants and overall ecosystem work together in a particular area to function properly. This knowledge in turn can help them better understand how to protect certain habitats and species.
Soil
First of all, for some reason my camera wont let me upload my pictures onto my computer this week. I'm looking into having the problem fixed and I was hoping to have it done in time to turn my work in but I only have 1 hour left and the tech support people still havent gotten back to me so I had to use an online pictuer of the type of soil I had in my area (silt loam). The URL where I obtained the picture is www.wy.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soilmoisture/image9a.jpg. Sorry for any inconvenience this poses. Now to the questions...
The type of soil that I found on my site reminded me of typical potting soil that would be used to grow plants. This kind of soil is often absorbant, so that it can hold more water for the plant for longer periods of time therefore decreasing the amount of human attention needed. For this reason, I feel that the soil on my site is fairly absorbant which means that water probably doesnt flow over the land as readily as it would in other places. Instead it is probably absorbed and used to grow the various plants seen in the other pictures.
In the area where the soil was collected there were a large number of bugs and an even larger number of weeds, plants and trees. I think that the bugs probably work to break down organic matter such as fallen trees which provide nutrients for the soil which the plants then use to grow.
I think that this soil probabily is pretty unlikely to be eroded in this particular location. For one reason it doesnt rain a terrible amount which means that the soil can probably handle most of the waterfall through absorbtion. However if they do have a particularly rainy season, than maybe some of the soil would be washed off. In this case, it would probably be washed off into the nearby river which is where most of the water flows to from the area. Its loss from the current location could have a devistating effect because it holds all the water and nutrients that the thousands of plants in the area need to grow. On the other hand it might help to fertilize whereever it ends up as eroded soil.
As an ecologist it is important to know about soil texture because it leads to a better understanding of how the animals, plants and overall ecosystem work together in a particular area to function properly. This knowledge in turn can help them better understand how to protect certain habitats and species.