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The typical pedon of Yesan soil (coarse-loamy, Typic Dystrochrept) from the MPRC (Multi-Purpose Range Complex) in South Korea. MPRC also known as Rodriguez Range at Yeongpyeong-ri, north of Pocheon, South Korea supports units of the 2nd Infantry Division for helicopter, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, M1 Abrams tank, artillery, mortor, and close air support training. The image is illustration 3.5 from the Planning Level Survey, 8th US Army Korea (1998). The primary purpose of planning level surveys are to ensure Army activities and natural resources conservation measures on mission land are integrated and consistent with federal stewardship requirements and host nation agreements.
Yesan soils are on immediate hills. Elevation ranges from about 100 to 400 meters. The native vegetation is mixed deciduous hardwood forest. The soils formed in material weathered from granite. The land is primarily forested.
Typic Dystrochrepts.—The central concept or Typic subgroup of Dystrochrepts is fixed on soils that are moderately deep or deep to hard rock, are freely drained and acid. Typic Dystrochrepts are extensive in the United States. They are widely distributed in the US. The largest concentration is in the Northeastern States. The native vegetation consists mostly of mixed forest. Most of these soils are used as forest. Many of the less sloping soils have been cleared and are used as cropland or pasture.
NOTE: Dystrochrepts have been revised to "Dystrudepts" in the latest version of Soil Taxonomy.
For more information about Describing and Sampling soils, visit;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about Soil Taxonomy, visit;
Redoximorphic features (RMFs) consist of color patterns in a soil that are caused by loss (depletion) or gain (concentration) of pigment compared to the matrix color, formed by oxidation/reduction of iron and/or manganese coupled with their removal, translocation, or accrual; or a soil matrix color controlled by the presence of iron.
The composition and responsible formation processes for a soil color or color pattern must be known or inferred before it can be described as an RMF.
This is an example of a depleted matrix with Fe concentrations along an old root channel. A depleted matrix refers to the volume of a soil horizon or subhorizon in which the processes of reduction and translocation have removed or transformed iron, creating colors of low chroma and high value.
Once the soil is saturated, Fe in solution moves downward and laterally. As the soil dries, the Fe accumulates along the pore wall forming pore linings. The linings are zones of accumulation that may be either coatings on a ped or pore surface or impregnations of the matrix adjacent to the pore or ped. Over time, the Fe concentrations thicken, and cementation may occur.
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
For more information about Hydric Soils and their Field Indicators, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
BUNCOMBE COUNTY is located in the central mountains of western North Carolina about 230 miles west of Raleigh, the State Capital. It consists of 422,284 acres, or approximately 656 square miles, of very steep mountains, rolling intermountain hills, and narrow valleys. Elevation ranges from 1,705 feet above sea level, on the French Broad River at the Madison County line, to 6,410 feet, at Potato Knob on the Buncombe and Yancey County line. The county is in the southern Blue Ridge Mountain Physiographic Province (MLRA 130B). It is bordered on the east by McDowell County, on the south by Henderson and Rutherford Counties, on the west by Haywood County, on the north by Madison County, and on the north and east by Yancey County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county had a population of 206,330 in 2000 and will have an estimated population of 235,281 by 2010. In 2000, the county seat of Asheville had a population of 68,889. Populations in the towns of Black Mountain, Woodfin, and Weaverville were 7,511; 3,162; and 2,411, respectively. This soil survey updates the survey of Buncombe County published in July 1954. It provides additional information and has larger maps, which show the soils in greater detail.
For additional information about the Soil Survey area, visit:
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-buncombe-county-n...
The general procedures followed in making this survey are described in the “National Soil Survey Handbook” of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and in the “Soil Survey Manual”. Before fieldwork began, preliminary boundaries of slopes and landforms were plotted stereoscopically on leaf-off aerial photographs taken in March of 1985 at a scale of 1:12,000. United States Geological Survey geologic and topographic maps at a scale of 1:24,000 were also used. Map units were then designed according to the pattern of soils interpreted from photographs, maps, and field observations. Traverses in the valleys were made by truck or on foot. The soils were examined at intervals ranging from a few hundred feet to about 1 /4 mile, depending on the landscape and soil pattern. Observations of special features, such as landforms, vegetation, and evidence of flooding, were made continuously without regard to spacing.
Soil boundaries were determined on the basis of soil examinations, observations, and photo interpretations. In many areas, such as those where very steep slopes intersect with flood plains, these boundaries are precise because of an abrupt change in the landform. The soils were examined with the aid of a hand probe, a bucket auger, or a spade to a depth of about 3 to 5 feet. The typical pedons were observed in pits dug by hand or with a back hoe. Traverses in the mountainous areas were made by truck or on foot along the existing network of roads and trials. These traverses commonly were made a few miles apart where the geologic materials and landscapes were uniform. In areas where differences in geologic material or landscape were observed, traverses were made at intervals close enough for the soil scientists to observe any differences among the soils.
Examinations were made at intervals ranging from a few hundred feet to about 1/4 mile. Observations of landforms and vegetation were made continuously without regard to spacing. Where soil profiles were readily observable, such as along recently constructed access roads and along logging roads, observations of the content of rock fragments, depth to bedrock, depth of rooting, the landform, and the underlying material were made without regard to spacing. Soil boundaries were plotted stereoscopically on the basis of parent material, landform, and relief. Many of these boundaries cannot be exact because they fall within a zone of gradual change between landforms, such as an area where a mountain ridge becomes a mountainside. Much intermingling of the soils occurs in these zones. Samples for chemical and physical analyses were taken from the site of the typical pedon of the major soils in the survey area. Most of the analyses were made by the Soil Survey Laboratory, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Some soils were analyzed by the North Carolina State University Soils Laboratory, Raleigh, North Carolina. Commonly used laboratory procedures were followed. After completion of the soil mapping on un-rectified aerial photographs, map unit delineations and surface drainage were transferred by hand. Cultural features were transferred from 7.5-minute topographic maps of the United States Geological Survey. Soil survey data was compiled and digitized onto orthophotographs at a scale of 1:12,000 (1 inch equals 1,000 feet).
For additional information about identifying soils within a geographic area, visit:
websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx
For information on how to plan and manage soil surveys; collect, document, and interpret soil survey information; and disseminate, publish, and promote the use of information about the soils of the United States and its trust territories, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/natio...
For more information about the major principles and practices needed for making and using soil surveys and for assembling and using related soils data, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
A representative soil profile of the Crosscan series. (Soil Survey of Arches National Park, Utah; by Catherine E. Scott, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: A typical landscape of Crosscan family-Rock outcrop complex, 5 to 30 percent slopes.
The Crosscan series consists of shallow and very shallow, well drained soils that formed in colluvium and residuum derived from sandstone and shale. Crosscan soils are in canyons and on hills. Slopes range from 6 to 80 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 12 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 48 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic, shallow Ustic Torriorthents
Note: Crosscan soils in this survey area include Lithic Ustic Torriorthents.
Soil moisture regime: aridic bordering on ustic
Soil temperature regime: mesic
Mean annual soil temperature: 52 to 54 degrees F
Depth to paralithic contact: 6 to 20 inches
Reaction: slightly or moderately alkaline
Particle-size control section: 27 to 35 percent clay
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used principally for wildlife habitat and livestock grazing. Dominant vegetation in the potential plant community are pinyon, juniper, mountain mahogany, and Indian ricegrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwest Colorado. LRR D, MLRA 36. The series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/utah/archesUT2...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CROSSCAN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
This photo accompanies Figure 46.—A depleted matrix. [Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States].
Redox concentrations are bodies of apparent accumulation of Fe-Mn oxide. Shown are four examples of iron accumulation lining pores and root channels. (Zoom in for detailed observation).
They are within the upper 30 cm of a depleted matrix in a Wehadkee soil. Redox concentrations include soft masses, pore linings, nodules, and concretions. For the purposes of the field indicators, nodules and concretions are excluded from the concept of redox concentrations unless otherwise specified by a specific indicator. See Vepraskas (1994) for a complete discussion.
The Wehadkee series (Fluvaquentic Endoaquepts) consists of very deep, poorly drained and very poorly drained soils on flood plains along streams that drain from the mountains and piedmont in the southeastern U.S. They formed in loamy sediments washed from soils that formed from schist, gneiss, granite, phyllite, and other metamorphic and igneous rocks. Runoff is very slow and internal drainage is very slow. Permeability is moderate. Most areas are frequently flooded and have an apparent seasonal high water table from the surface to a depth of 1 foot, primarily during the months of November through May. Ponding is common during the wetter months. Note the standing water in the photo foreground.
Most of the area is in forest; chiefly water tolerant hardwoods such as sweetgum, blackgum, water oak, willow, oak, poplar, hickories, beech, and elm. Drained areas are used for pasture, corn, and hay. The soil is of large extent and has been correlated in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Soil profile: The Sherless series consists of moderately deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in residuum of interbedded shale and sandstone of Mississippian age. Water runs off the surface at a medium to rapid rate. (Soil Survey of Montgomery County, Arkansas; by Jeffrey W. Olson, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Sherless-Littlefir complex, 1 to 8 percent slopes, which is well suited to pasture and hayland. These gently sloping to moderately steep soils are on the tops and sides of low ridges in the valleys of the Ouachita Mountains. Slopes are 1 to 35 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Typic Hapludults
Thickness of solum is 20 to 40 inches. Gravel ranges from 5 to 20 percent by volume throughout the solum. Cobbles range from 0 to 20 percent by volume in the A horizon, and from 0 to 15 percent by volume in the B horizon. Total volume of coarse fragments is less than 35 percent in the B horizon.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for woodland and pastureland. Forest of white oak, southern red oak, sweetgum, blackgum, hickory, and shortleaf pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas. The series is of moderate extent. Sherless soils were formerly included with the Sherwood series.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arkansas/AR097...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SHERLESS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Bluegrass series.
The Bluegrass series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in silty material over residuum weathered from phosphatic limestone. These soils are on uplands.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
Thickness of the solum ranges from 60 to 120 inches or more. Thickness of the argillic horizon ranges from 50 to 100 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 60 to 200 inches or more. Chert fragments, less than 3 inches in diameter, range from 0 to 5 percent in the 2Bt, 2BC and 2C horizons. The reaction of the Ap, A and Bt horizons range from neutral to strongly acid; the 2Bt, 2BC and 2C horizons range from slightly acid to strongly acid. The phosphate content in the solum is variable but is typically medium or high.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used for crops; such as burley tobacco, corn, small grains, alfalfa, and for pasture. Bluegrass and white clover are the most common pasture plants. Native vegetation was dominated by oaks, elm, ash, black walnut, black and honey locust, hackberry, black cherry, and Kentucky coffee tree. Glades of native grasses and canes were reported by early settlers.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. The Bluegrass series was previously included with the Maury or Sandview phosphatic substratum series.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BLUEGRASS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Jarosite concentrations (yellowish color) that formed due to oxidation in this drained marsh soil containing sulfides.
Drained or excavated marsh soils that contain large amounts of sulfides commonly have yellow efflorescences of the mineral jarosite on the exteriors of clods. Sulfides, mainly iron sulfide, occur in some tidal marsh soils and in some sedimentary rocks, such as those associated with coal or shale. When these materials are exposed (e.g., when marsh soils are drained or sulfide-bearing rock is excavated), oxidation commonly produces sulfuric acid.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Hard Labor series. The Hard Labor soils have a perched water table typically at a depth of 75 to 100 centimeters (gray iron depletions are visible in the photo). These soils commonly occur on toeslopes. (Soil Survey of Greene County, Georgia; by Dee C. Pederson and Gregory H. Clark, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Land cover: Crimson clover planted in an area of Hard Labor-Appling complex, 2 to 6 percent slopes. Crimson clover is a cover crop that produces nitrogen. The cover crop reduces the hazard of erosion, and in situ nitrogen production enhances soil nutrients.
The Hard Labor series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in material weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rock, primarily granite and granite gneiss. The Hard Labor soils are on summits and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. There is a perched water table in late winter and early spring. Slope ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Near the type location, the mean annual temperature is 60 degrees F, and the mean annual precipitation is 45 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Oxyaquic Kanhapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches or more. Depth to bedrock is more than 5 feet. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout the profile, unless limed. Limed soils typically are slightly acid or neutral in the upper part of the profile. Content of rock fragments ranges from 0 to 35 percent by volume in the A and E horizons, and from 0 to 10 percent by volume in the B and C horizons. Fragments are dominantly pebbles in size. Most pedons have none to common flakes of mica in the A, E, and Bt horizons, and few to many flakes of mica in the BC and C horizons. Content of plinthite nodules ranges from 0 to 5 percent in the lower Bt and BC horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is in cultivation or pasture and the remainder is in forests of mixed hardwoods and pine. Common crops are cotton, corn, soybeans, and small grains.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Southern Piedmont of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and possibly Virginia. The series is currently of small extent, but is anticipated to become of large extent with future examinations of areas in the Piedmont mapped as Appling, Durham, Vance, or Wedowee soils.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/greene...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/H/HARD_LABOR.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: The Ngardmau series is characterized by infertile topsoil over infertile subsoil. Below a depth of 50 centimeters, the subsoil retains some characteristics of the parent material, which gives the subsoil the variegated color pattern of red, yellow, and white. Ngardmau soils support mostly false staghorn ferns (Gleichenia linearis or Dicranopteris linearis). This profile is in map unit 614 (Babelthuap-Ngardmau-Typic Udorthents undifferentiated group, 12 to 30 percent slopes), in Airai State, Babeldaob Island. (Soil Survey of the Islands of Palau, Republic of Palau; by Jason L. Nemecek and Robert T. Gavenda, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Babelthuap-Ngardmau-Typic Udorthents undifferentiated group, 12 to 30 percent slopes, on degraded fern land on a volcanic landscape in southeast Airai State on Babeldaob Island.
The Ngardmau series consists of very deep, well drained soils on uplands. These soils formed in highly weathered volcanic breccia and tuff. Slope is 2 to 75 percent. The mean annual rainfall is about 145 inches, and the mean annual temperature is about 81 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Very-fine, parasesquic, isohyperthermic Oxic Dystrudepts
Coarse fragments on the surface range from 25 to 90 percent pebble-size and 0 to 15 percent irregular vesicular ferritic and gibbsitic concretions 3 to 6 inches in size. Thickness of the solum ranges from 10 to 20 inches.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are idle land and used only for watershed. The vegetation is a degraded anthropic savannah consisting of poor stands of Gleichenia linearis, Nepenthes mirabilis, Extrosia lepornia, Paspalum orbiculare and scattered shrubs and pandanus.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Ngardmau soils are of small extent in Palau on the island of Babelthuap. Ngardmau soils have a perudic moisture regime. The surface layer becomes dry for short periods, particularly during the months of February, March, and April, due to the high coarse fragment content. The mean annual soil temperature is 82 degrees F. In local pronunciation of the word Ngardmau, the "g" is silent. This soil meets all the requirements at an oxic horizon except thickness.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/pacific_basin/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/N/NGARDMAU.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soils are the basis of life and the foundation for agriculture. (Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.) Yet, during the past few decades, focus on the importance of soils has diminished, coupled with harsh man-made and natural conditions that have resulted in soil erosion and soil nutrient depletion. Without vibrant and healthy soil, plants and animals cannot flourish. Therefore, it is vital that we have a deep understanding of soil so we may conserve and protect this very valuable natural resource.
The images provided in the Soil Science Photo Gallery offer a unique perspective of the world underfoot. They are designed to be used by students, naturalists, scientists, or anyone seeking a better understanding of the natural world in which we live. In general, the images and accompanied information are an overview of the contemporary process of describing, classifying, and correlating soils. These materials will assist the reader to increase their knowledge about soil as a natural, evolving feature of the earth’s surface and its critical role in sustaining life.
Many of the images were photographed over a 35-year career as a soil scientist with USDA-NRCS and as an international soil consultant. Others were downloaded from various web-based articles, publications, photo albums, etc. Where known, the images have been sourced, cited, or credited to the original author or photographer and a link provided to the original and related sites. Otherwise, it may be assumed they have been provided by USDA-NRCS (SCS) staff. Please keep in mind, over time links may be broken as web sites are changed or files deleted or moved.
In order to make comparison easier, they have been revised to a standard size and format. Soil profiles may have been edited to remove extraneous objects such as tools, scales, markers, cross shadows, etc. or to clarify features. If the image is of a soil or landscape outside the U.S., the standard ISO two-digit country code has been provided. (i.e., AU indicating Australia)
If you would like a copy of an image(s), they may be downloaded via the Flicker download feature in various resolutions including the original size (5x7 inch @ 500 ppi for pedons). Request for permission to use individual image(s) is not required; however, if used, please cite the original source or photographer (e.g., Photo courtesy of John Kelley, USDA-NRCS or Photo by USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, or Photo source unknown.)
If a photo from this site is used in a publication, on a web site, or as part of any other project, please use the provided photo credit. This photo may not be used to infer or imply USDA-NRCS endorsement of any product, company, or position. Please do not distort the image the photo portrays.
The contributions to this site from the original authors and photographers are greatly appreciated. Comments, suggestions, or contributions can be made by contact through FlickrMail or…
bettmark.john@gmail.com
To view a list of individual albums, click HERE
John A. Kelley
Soil Scientist, Retired
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
Soil and Plant Science Division
President, Bettmark, Inc.
Raleigh, NC USA 27613
To view Research Gate profile/research click HERE
PLEASE NOTE:
The site does not contain site specific information or advice. The scientific information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not to be used as legal advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with an appropriate professional soil scientist. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS SITE IS SOLEY AT THE USERS OWN RISK.
A soil profile and landscape of a Haplogypsid from the United Arab Emirates.
Leptic Haplogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic, lithic phase (Soil AD113) are moderately to very deep, sandy soils with gypsum occurring at or near the soil surface and underlain by a lithic contact between 50cm and 200cm. They are well drained or somewhat excessively drained and permeability is moderate or moderately rapid. These soils commonly occur on older sediments in deflation plains and at the higher margins of inland and coastal sabkha. They are formed in old sand and gravel deposits.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
library.wur.nl/isric/fulltext/isricu_i34214_001.pdf
Commonly used for low intensity camel grazing these soils frequently have less than 5% vegetation cover comprising Haloxylon salicornicum and Zygophyllum spp.
These soils are of limited extent and have been recorded in deflation plains in the north-east of the Emirate and also on the alluvial fans in the west, near Sila. The soils are a major component of one map unit and a minor component of two others.
Plate 11: Typical soil profile and associated landscape for Leptic Haplogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic, lithic phase (Soil AD113).
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Monteola soil series.
Landscape: A stand of haygrazer growing on an area of Monteola clay, 0 to 1 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of Goliad County, Texas; by Jonathan K. Wiedenfeld)
The Monteola series consists of very deep, well drained, very slowly permeable soils. These soils formed in clays and clays interbedded with sandstone and claystone of the Oakville and Fleming Formation. These gently to moderately sloping soils occur on hillslopes on inland dissected coastal plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 787 mm (31in) and the mean annual air temperature is about 21.7 degrees C (71 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Typic Haplusterts
Soil Moisture: A typic ustic soil moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for more than 90 but less than 180 cumulative days in normal years.
Mean annual soil temperature: 22 to 24 degrees C (72 to 75 degrees F).
Solum thickness: more than 203 cm (80 inches)
Electrical Conductivity: ranges from nonsaline in the upper part to moderately saline in the lower part.
Particle-size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 40 to 60 percent
Rock fragments: 0 to 3 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Monteola soils are in cropland and are used for cotton and grain sorghums. Principal native plants are mesquite, spiny hackberry, catclaw, and agarito. Native grasses are buffalograss, curlymesquite grass, and alkali sacaton.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern, Central, and Western Rio Grande Plains (MLRA 83A); LRR I. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/goliadTX...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MONTEOLA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a Phaeozem from Luxembourg. (Photo courtesy of Stefaan Dondeyne, revised.)
Phaeozems accommodate soils of relatively wet grassland and forest regions in moderately continental climates. Phaeozems are much like Chernozems and Kastanozems but are leached more intensively. Consequently, they have dark, humusrich surface horizons that, in comparison with Chernozems and Kastanozems, are less rich in bases. Phaeozems are either free of secondary carbonates or have them only at greater depths. They all have a high base saturation in the upper metre of the soil. Commonly used names for many Phaeozems are Brunizems (Argentina and France), Dark grey forest soils and Leached and Podzolized chernozems (former Soviet Union), Tschernoseme (Germany) and Chernossolos (Brazil). In the Soil Map of the World (FAO–UNESCO, 1971–1981) they belong to the Phaeozems and partly to the Greyzems. Dusky-red prairie soils was their name in older systems of the United States of America, where most of them now belong to Udolls and Albolls. (WRB)
Rendzic (from Polish rzendzic, to grate in contact with a plough blade): having a mollic horizon that contains or directly overlies calcaric material containing ≥ 40% calcium carbonate equivalent or that directly overlies calcareous rock containing ≥ 40% calcium carbonate equivalent.
For more information about soil classification using the WRB system, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Aberford soil series (Calcaric Endoleptic Cambisols) in England. (The Soils Guide.) (Cranfield University, UK). Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales.
The easily worked land of this association consists of brown calcareous earths of the Aberford series with subsidiary brown rendzinas belonging to Elmton series and, locally, colluvial brown calcareous earths of the Dullingham series. The association is extensive on gentle dipslopes of Permian and Jurassic limestones in Midland and Northern England and occurs to a limited extent in Cambridgeshire and on Eocene limestones on the Isle of Wight. Aberford soils, which cover about half the land, are well drained and fine loamy with a characteristic brown subsoil over limestone at 40 to 50 cm depth.
Stoniness varies with the hardness of the underlying rock but normally increases down the profile. The shallow and stony Elmton soils are found on brows, steeper slopes or over particularly hard limestone. Dullingham soils occur on footslopes, in dry valleys and sites where soil has accumulated. Most soils are calcareous and all are well drained.
A representative soilscape of the Tonka series (a hydric soil). The Tonka series consists of very deep, poorly drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in local alluvium over till or glaciolacustrine deposits. These soils are in closed basins and depressions on till and glacial lake plains and have slopes of 0 to 1 percent. Mean annual air temperature is 42 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation is 20 inches.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, frigid Argiaquic Argialbolls
Depth to carbonates commonly is 28 to 40 inches but ranges from 20 to more than 60 inches. The depth to the Bt horizon ranges from 12 to 28 inches. The soil commonly is free of rock fragments, but in some pedons the lower part of the solum and the substratum contain pebbles. Some pedons have surface stones.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for small grains, hay and pasture. Native vegetation is tall grasses, sedges and rushes.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Widely distributed on the glaciated plains of North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, and western Minnesota. The series is extensive.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TONKA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Scientists from PNNL present the fourth and final lesson in their after-school series at Sagebrush Montessori School in Richland, WA. In this lesson, students learned about mushrooms.
Terms of Use: Our images are freely and publicly available for use with the credit line, "Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory"; Please use provided caption information for use in appropriate context.
John Kelley, Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS photographing Iredell County landscape. Iredell County is located in the west-central part of North Carolina. It is bordered by Wilkes and Yadkin Counties to the north, Davie and Rowan Counties to the east, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg Counties to the south, and Lincoln, Catawba, and Alexander Counties to the west.
Iredell County Soil Survey report:
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-iredell-county-no...
The lowest elevations in Iredell County, around 600 feet, occur along Coddle Creek in the southeastern part of the county near the Rowan-Cabarrus County line and along the South Yadkin River near the Davie-Rowan County line. The highest elevations occur in the Brushy Mountains in the northwest part of the county and include Fox Mountain, which has an elevation of about 1,760 feet. Iredell County has a total area of 380,045 acres, or about 594 square miles. Land covers 366,945 acres, and water covers the other 13,100 acres. Lake Norman, which is North Carolina’s largest manmade lake by surface area, extends into the southwest corner of the county. Statesville, the county seat, is in the central part of the county, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, and has a population of about 24,875. Mooresville, the second largest city, is in the southern part of the county and has an estimated population of 20,500. According to 2008 census figures, the county has an estimated population of 155,359. This soil survey updates the survey of Iredell County published in 1964 (USDASCS, 1964). It provides additional information and has larger scaled maps, which show the soils in greater detail.
The update soil survey of Iredell County, North Carolina was conducted to ensure that soils information provided for survey areas within Major Land Resource Area 136 have modern interpretations and up-to-date soil descriptions. This information meets the standards established and defined for the survey area in the memorandum of understanding that was developed among cooperating agencies. Soil surveys that are consistent and uniform within a broad area enable the coordination of management recommendations and uniform program application of soils information.
The survey was made to provide information about the soils and miscellaneous areas in the survey area. The information includes a description of the soils and miscellaneous areas and their location and a discussion of their suitability, limitations, and management for specified uses. Soil scientists observed the steepness, length, and shape of the slopes; the general pattern of drainage; the kinds of crops and native plants; and the kinds of bedrock. They dug many holes to study the soil profile, which is the sequence of natural layers, or horizons, in a soil. The profile extends from the surface down into the unconsolidated material in which the soil formed. The unconsolidated material is devoid of roots and other living organisms and has not been changed by other biological activity.
The soils and miscellaneous areas in the survey area are in an orderly pattern that is related to the geology, landforms, relief, climate, and natural vegetation of the area. Each kind of soil and miscellaneous area is associated with a particular kind of landform or with a segment of the landform. By observing the soils and miscellaneous areas in the survey area and relating their position to specific segments of the landform, a soil scientist develops a concept, or model, of how they were formed. Thus, during mapping, this model enables the soil scientist to predict with a considerable degree of accuracy the kind of soil or miscellaneous area at a specific location on the landscape.
Commonly, individual soils on the landscape merge into one another as their characteristics gradually change. To construct an accurate soil map, however, soil scientists must determine the boundaries between the soils. They can observe only a limited number of soil profiles. Nevertheless, these observations, supplemented by an understanding of the soil-vegetation-landscape relationship, are sufficient to verify predictions of the kinds of soil in an area and to determine the boundaries.
Map unit documentation in the updated survey of Iredell County consists primarily of soil transects conducted by soil scientists. Soil transects are a systematic procedure for sampling a specific soil type. Soil borings are taken at fixed, random, subjectively determined intervals. Soil scientists record the characteristics of the soil profiles that they study. They note soil color, texture, size and shape of soil aggregates, kind and amount of rock fragments, distribution of plant roots, reaction, and other features that enable them to identify soils. This information can then be used to run statistical analyses for specific soil properties. The results of these analyses, along with other observations, enable the soil scientists to assign the soils to taxonomic classes (units).
Taxonomic classes are concepts. Each taxonomic class has a set of soil characteristics with precisely defined limits. The classes are used as a basis for comparison to classify soils systematically. Soil taxonomy, the system of taxonomic classification used in the United States, is based mainly on the kind and character of soil properties and the arrangement of horizons within the profile. After the soil scientists classified and named the soils in the survey area, they compared the individual soils with similar soils in the same taxonomic class in other areas so that they could confirm data and assemble additional data based on experience and research.
While a soil survey is in progress, samples of some of the soils in the area generally are collected for laboratory analyses and for engineering tests. Soil scientists interpret the data from these analyses and tests as well as the field-observed characteristics and the soil properties to determine the expected behavior of the soils under different uses. Interpretations for all of the soils are field tested through observation of the soils in different uses and under different levels of management. Some interpretations are modified to fit local conditions, and some new interpretations are developed to meet local needs. Data are assembled from other sources, such as research information, production records, and field experience of specialists. For example, data on crop yields under defined levels of management are assembled from farm records and from field or plot experiments on the same kinds of soil.
Predictions about soil behavior are based not only on soil properties but also on such variables as climate and biological activity. Soil conditions are predictable over long periods of time, but they are not predictable from year to year. For example, soil scientists can predict with a fairly high degree of accuracy that a given soil will have a high water table within certain depths in most years, but they cannot predict that a high water table will always be at a specific level in the soil on a specific date.
Aerial photographs used in this update survey were taken in 1998. Soil scientists also studied U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps and orthophotographs to relate land and image features. Adjustments of soil boundary lines on the update soil maps were made to coincide with the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data obtained from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, including contour lines and tonal patterns on aerial photographs. Aerial photographs also show trees, buildings, fields, roads, and rivers, all of which help in locating boundaries accurately. The descriptions, names, and delineations of the soils in this survey area do not fully agree with those of the soils in adjacent survey areas. Differences are the result of a better knowledge of soils, modifications in series concepts, or variations in the intensity of mapping or in the extent of the soils in the survey areas.
Soil profile of Weesatche sandy clay loam, 1 to 3 percent slopes. The depth to secondary carbonates typically occurs within a depth of 45 to 100 centimeters (18 to 40 inches). (Soil Survey of Goliad County, Texas; by Jonathan K. Wiedenfeld, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Weesatche series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in calcareous loamy residuum weathered from sandstone of Pliocene age. These soils are on nearly level to gently sloping summits, backslopes, and footslopes of interfluves. Slopes range from 0 to 5 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 711 mm (28 in) and the mean annual air temperature is about 22.2 degrees C (72 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, hyperthermic Typic Argiustolls
Soil moisture: A typic-ustic moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for more than 90 days but less than 180 cumulative days in normal years. June through August and December through February are the driest months. These soils are intermittently moist in September through November and March through May.
Mean annual soil temperature: 22 to 23 degrees C (72 to 74 degrees F)
Depth to argillic: 15 to 76 cm (6 to 30 in)
Depth to calcic: 64 to 203 cm (25 to 80 in)
Depth to secondary carbonates: 51 to 203 cm (20 to 80 in)
Coarse fragments: 0 to 15 percent siliceous gravels
Particle-size control section (weighted average): clay content: 20 to 32 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. The native plants are sideoats grama, little bluestem, threeawn, Texas wintergrass, and broomweed. Woody species are blackbrush, agarito, live oak, mesquite, and huisache. Some areas are used for crop production with crops being grain sorghum and corn. Minor areas are used for forage production.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern and Central Rio Grande Plain, Texas; LRR I; MLRA 83A; large extent. This is a benchmark series.
These soils were formerly included in the Goliad series.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/goliadTX...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WEESATCHE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Berryland soils are very deep, very poorly drained soils on Coastal plain uplands or lowlands with slopes of 0 to 2 percent. Parent material is sandy eolian deposits and /or fluviomarine sediments.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, siliceous, mesic Typic Alaquods
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major uses--Mostly in woodland. Some of the soil has been cleared for growing high-bush blueberries and cranberries. Drained areas have been used for growing vegetables, corn, soybeans and small grain.
Where wooded--predominantly pitch pine, widely spaced Atlantic white cedar, red maple, and black gum. The dense understory is commonly high-bush blueberry, sweet pepperbush, bay magnolia, leather leaf, gallberry, and greenbriar. In Maryland, loblolly pine, pond pine, red maple, sweetgum, black gum, willow oak, swamp chestnut oak, and American holly are important forest trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution--Coastal Plain of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York. Extent--Moderate, over 150,000 acres.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BERRYLAND.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Understanding the current state and condition of Australian soils requires an appreciation of their diversity and their ability to support different forms of land use. It also requires an appreciation of human impacts, not only in recent years and decades, but also on longer timescales of centuries and millennia. This is because the impact of land-use change is long-lasting, soil formation is very slow, and remediation can take decades. (Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy).
Contributing sources:
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy:
(Metcalfe D, Bui E (2016). Land: Soil: Understanding. In: Australia state of the environment 2016, Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra):
soe.environment.gov.au/theme/land/topic/2016/soil-underst...
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's Agriculture and Food:
www.agric.wa.gov.au/managing-soils/mysoil
Second Edition of the Australian Soil Classification (2016):
www.clw.csiro.au/aclep/asc_re_on_line_V2/soilhome.htm
State of Victoria (Agriculture Victoria):
vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/pages/vrohome
Queensland Government:
www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/soil/soil-test...
A representative soil profile of the Dunkeswick series (Eutric Albic Luvic Stagnosols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/wrb_list.cfm
Dunkeswick soils are dominated by stagnogley soils in greyish brown drift derived mainly from Carboniferous shales, but often containing Jurassic and Triassic sandstones or occasional limestones. It occurs on gently to moderately sloping land from sea level to about 300 m O.D. The association is most extensive in Northern England but also occurs in parts of the Midlands and South West England.
Dunkeswick soils are fine-loamy over clayey soils. These soils occupy 46 km² of gently undulating land at altitudes of 60 to 180 m O.D. in the Forest of Dean and a small area west of Vobster in Somerset. This is the second most extensive association in Northern England and occupies about 2550 km², mainly east of the Pennines, between Pontefract and Berwick-Upon-Tweed. The composition is relatively uniform but included throughout are alluvial soils in valleys too small to distinguish separately. In West Yorkshire it occurs in small areas of drift over Coal Measures shales, where the soils are difficult to distinguish from those of the Bardsey series, in shales.
Being slowly permeable, the clayey subsoil impedes percolation and causes rapid run-off of rainwater in winter. Without artificial drainage the soils are seasonally waterlogged for long periods in winter (Wetness Class IV) but well conceived drainage measures can reduce waterlogging significantly (Wetness Class III). The loamy subsurface layer, with its occasional hard or rotted stones, makes mole drainage unsuitable as an after-treatment, and for the best results these soils require permeable fill with regular subsoiling.
Much of the land is suited only to seasonal pasture and livestock rearing predominates. The soils poach easily and are generally inaccessible for stock and machinery in winter. Although grass is the best use in most areas, large stocking densities cannot be sustained. In dry districts where the field capacity period is less than 175 days, such as near Derby and Annesley Woodhouse, the soils are suitable for arable cropping and intensively managed grassland. The slow permeability and seasonal surface wetness restrict the number of machinery work days, especially in spring. The soil dries out slowly and cultivations must be carefully timed to avoid damage to the soil structure. Cropping is therefore mostly restricted to autumn-sown cereals but harvesting can cause damage in wet seasons.
Most of the agricultural land surrounding the Forest of Dean is in long term grassland, with small areas in ley-arable rotation. The soils poach easily and cultivation can be difficult because of the long periods of subsoil waterlogging which restrict the number of good machinery work days. The soils are suitable for forestry, especially where the land is not too exposed, and good yields are obtained from most conifers. Deep drainage is essential to promote root development and thus secure anchorage against the wind at early stages of growth. Kielder Forest, Northumberland, is mainly Norway spruce and Japanese larch with some Douglas fir and beech, the last being remnants of old woodland.
For additional information about the soil association, visit:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=71116
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
A Reductigleyic Gleysol in Kuurne (province of West-Vlaanderen), Belgium. Image provided by S. Dondeyne.
www.researchgate.net/profile/S-Dondeyne
For more information about this soil, visit:
www.researchgate.net/publication/267969329_The_soil_map_o...
In the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), soils with redox processes due to ascending groundwater belong to the Reference Soil Group Gleysols. Soils with redox processes due to stagnant water are Stagnosols and Planosols.
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf
A gley is a wetland soil (hydric soil) that unless drained is saturated with groundwater for long enough to develop a characteristic gleyic colour pattern. The pattern is essentially made up of reddish, brownish, or yellowish colours at surfaces of soil particles and/or in the upper soil horizons mixed with greyish/blueish colours inside the peds and/or deeper in the soil. Gleysols are also known as Gleyzems, meadow soils, Aqu-suborders of Entisols, Inceptisols and Mollisols (USDA soil taxonomy), or as groundwater soils and hydro-morphic soils.
Gleysols occur within a wide range of unconsolidated materials, mainly fluvial, marine and lacustrine sediments of Pleistocene or Holocene age, having basic to acidic mineralogy. They are found in depression areas and low landscape positions with shallow groundwater.
Wetness is the main limitation of Gleysols; these are covered with natural swamp vegetation and lie idle or are used for extensive grazing. Farmers use artificially-drained Gleysols for arable cropping, dairy farming and horticulture. Gleysols in the tropics and subtropics are widely planted with rice.
Gleysols occupy an estimated 720 million hectares worldwide. They are azonal soils and occur in nearly all climates. The largest extent of Gleysols is in northern Russia, Siberia, Canada, Alaska, China and Bangladesh. An estimated 200 million hectares of Gleysols are found in the tropics, mainly in the Amazon region, equatorial Africa, and the coastal swamps of Southeast Asia.
Gleysols are also known as Gleyzems, meadow soils, Aqu-suborders of Entisols, Inceptisols and Mollisols (USDA soil taxonomy), or as groundwater soils and hydro-morphic soils.
A representative soil profile of the Appling soil series. (Original image courtesy of Matthew C. Ricker, NC State University)
[cals.ncsu.edu/crop-and-soil-sciences/people/mcricker/]
The original photo may be viewed at:
www.flickr.com/photos/soilscience/49698336237/in/album-72...
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Note: In this pedon of Appling the "E" horizon is thicker than typical for the series (over 20 cm). The series allows an E horizon of less than 15 cm thick. In addition, it is marginal to an Arenic subgroup. (Kandiudults that have a sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size class throughout a layer extending from the mineral soil surface to the top of a kandic horizon at a depth of 50 to 100 cm.) In the soil survey, this pedon would be identified as a map unit inclusion.
The Appling series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on ridges and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. They are deep to saprolite and very deep to bedrock. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent.
Appling soils are very similar to Cecil soils, except Cecil soils have a subsoil with dominant hue of 5YR or redder. Where hue is 5YR in Cecil soils, evident patterns of mottling are absent in the Bt and BC horizon, whereas patterns of lithochromic mottling are common in Appling soils.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults
The Bt horizon is at least 24 to 50 inches thick and extends to 40 inches or more. Depth to bedrock ranges from 6 to 10 feet or more. The soil is very strongly acid or strongly acid throughout, unless limed. Limed soils typically are moderately acid or slightly acid in the upper part. Content of coarse fragments ranges from 0 to 35 percent by volume in the A and E horizons and 0 to 10 percent by volume in the Bt horizon. Fragments are dominantly gravel in size. Most pedons have few to common flakes of mica in the A and Bt horizons and few to many flakes of mica in the BC and C horizons.
Most of the acreage is in cultivation or pasture and the remainder is in forests of mixed hardwoods and pine. Common crops are corn, tobacco, soybeans, cotton, and small grains.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Piedmont of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The series is of large extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/APPLING.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
This photo accompanies Figure 17.—Indicator A12, Thick Dark Surface. [Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States].
A typical landscape of the Tonka soil series (Argiaquic Argialbolls). The tonka series consists of very deep, poorly drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in local alluvium over till or glaciolacustrine deposits. These soils are in closed basins and depressions on till and glacial lake plains and have slopes of 0 to 1 percent.
Runoff is ponded. A seasonal high water table is at a depth of 0.5 foot above the surface to 1 foot below the surface at some time during the period April through June. It is used for small grains, hay and pasture. Native vegetation is tall grasses, sedges and rushes.
The series is extensive on the glaciated plains of North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, and western Minnesota.
Photo courtesy of EAD-Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. www.ead.gov.ae/
Soil scientists record the characteristics of the pedons, associated plant communities, geology, landforms, and other features that they study. They describe the kind and arrangement of soil horizons and their color, texture, size and shape of soil aggregates, kind and amount of rock fragments, distribution of plant roots, reaction, and other features that enable them to classify and identify soils. They describe plant species present (their combinations, productivity, and condition) to classify plant communities, correlate them to the soils with which they are typically associated, and predict their response to management and change.
Typic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic, lithic phase (Soil AD148) are moderately deep to very deep, sandy soils with salinity throughout the profile. A lithic contact occurs below 50cm. The soils occur in coastal sabkha plains and some inland sabkha. They are typically moderately well drained or somewhat excessively drained and have moderately rapid or rapid permeability.
Due to the strongly saline nature, the soils are barren without any vegetation and are not used for any specific purpose.
These soils occur within the coastal sabkha areas and have also been described from inland sabkhas including Sabkha Matti. They have been identified as components of two map units.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Nankin soil series. (Soil Survey of Stewart County, Georgia; by By Kenneth W. Monroe, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Gullied land-Nankin-Ailey complex, 15 to 90 percent slopes, severely eroded, in Providence Canyon State Park. The park is locally referred to as “Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon.” The major components of this map unit are about 40 percent Gullied land; about 25 percent Nankin and similar soils; and about 15 percent Ailey and similar soils.
The Nankin series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils on uplands of the Coastal Plain. They formed in stratified loamy and clayey marine sediments. Near the type location, the mean annual air temperature is about 65 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is about 50 inches. Slopes range from 0 to 60 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Reaction is very strongly acid or strongly acid throughout, except where limed. Nodules or fragments of ironstone range from 0 to 25 percent, by volume, in the A and B horizons. Few to common flakes of mica occur in the lower parts of some pedons. The control section has an average clay content of 35 to 50 percent and an average silt content of less than 20 percent. Plinthite ranges from 0 to 3 percent, by volume, in the Bt horizon.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in woodland with some areas in cropland or pasture. Loblolly pine, longleaf pine, and slash pine the dominant trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Southern Coastal Plain of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/stewar...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/N/NANKIN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/stewar...
This region lies adjacent to the coastal plain in central parts of the Emirate. It represents carbonatic sand sheets with minor areas of saline soils. Some flat-topped mesas occur, capped by evaporite deposits from earlier soil forming periods and subsequently left upstanding by erosion.
A Typic Haplogypsid, salidic from the interior of the UAE.
Typic Haplogypsids are the Haplogypsids that do not have have a gypsic horizon with its upper boundary within 18 cm of the soil surface. These soils do not have a lithic contact within 50 cm of the soil surface. In the United States they occur in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
In addition, this pedon has an ECe of more than 8 to less than 30 dS m −1 in a layer 10 cm or more thick at a depth of 100 to 200 cm (salidic phase).
Phases of soil taxa have been developed for those mineral soils that have soil properties or characteristics that occur at a deeper depth than currently identified for an established taxonomic subgroup or soil properties that effect interpretations not currently recognized at the subgroup level. The phases which have been identified in the UAE include: anhydritic, aquic, calcic, gypsic, lithic, petrocalcic, petrogypsic, salic, salidic, shelly, and sodic.
The gypsic horizon is a horizon in which gypsum has accumulated or been transformed to a significant extent (secondary gypsum (CaSO4) has accumulated through more than 150 mm of soil, so that this horizon contains at least 5% more gypsum than the underlying horizon). It typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils.
Haplogypsids are the Gypsids that have no petrogypsic, natric, argillic, or calcic horizon that has an upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. Some Haplogypsids have a cambic horizon overlying the gypsic horizon. These soils are commonly very pale in color. They are not extensive in the United States. The largest concentrations in the United States are in New Mexico and Texas. The soils are more common in other parts of the world.
Gypsids are the Aridisols that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon within 100 cm of the soil surface. Accumulation of gypsum takes place initially as crystal aggregates in the voids of the soils. These aggregates grow by accretion, displacing the enclosing soil material. When the gypsic horizon occurs as a cemented impermeable layer, it is recognized as the petrogypsic horizon. Each of these forms of gypsum accumulation implies processes in the soils, and each presents a constraint to soil use. One of the largest constraints is dissolution of the gypsum, which plays havoc with structures, roads, and irrigation delivery systems. The presence of one or more of these horizons, with or without other diagnostic horizons, defines the great groups of the Gypsids. Gypsids occur in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, West Asia, and some of the most arid areas of the western part of the United States. Gypsids are on many segments of the landscape. Some of them have calcic or related horizons that overlie the gypsic horizon.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of an Oxisol (fine, kaolinitic, isohyperthermic Typic Kandiudox) from the Cerado physiographic region--a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais and the Federal District of Brazil. (Horizonation by Brazil soil classification system.)
Landscape: Typical landscape and vegetation (pastureland) occurring on upland interfuve and side-slope in Brazil.
Oxisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy. Oxisols are weathered soils that are low in fertility. They are most common on the gentle slopes of geologically old surfaces in tropical and subtropical regions. Their profiles are distinctive because of a lack of obvious horizons. Their surface horizons are normally somewhat darker than the subsoil, but the transition of subsoil features is gradual. Some oxisols have been previously classified as laterite soils.
In the Brazil soil classification system, these soils are Latossolos. They are highly weathered soils composed mostly of clay and weathering resistant sand particles. Clay silicates of low activity (kaolinite clays) or iron and aluminum oxide rich (haematite, goethite, gibbsite) are common. There are little noticeable horizonation differences. These are naturally very infertile soils, but, because of the ideal topography and physical conditions, some are being used for agricultural production. These soils do require fertilizers because of the ease of leaching of nutrients through the highly weathered soils.
For additional information about these soils, visit:
sites.google.com/site/soil350brazilsoilsla/soil-formation...
and...
For additional information about U.S. soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class...
China, with its vast and diverse climatic conditions, has a wide variety of soils. Indeed, all the soil types of the Eurasian continent, except the soils of the tundra and the highly leached podzolic-gley soils of the northern taiga (boreal forest), are found in China. As a result of the climatic differences between the drier and cooler North and the wetter and hotter South, soils may be grouped into two classifications. Generally speaking, the soils north of the Qin Mountains–Huai River line are pedocals (calcareous) and are neutral to alkaline in reaction; those south of this line are pedalfers (leached noncalcareous soils), which are neutral to acid.
Apart from the great plateaus and high mountains to the southwest, marked soil zones are formed in China according to differences in climate, vegetation, and distance from the sea. The east and southeast coastal region is covered by the forest zone associated with a humid and semihumid climate, while the north and northwest inland regions belong mostly to the steppe zone, as well as to the semidesert and desert zone associated with a semiarid and arid climate. Between these two broad soil zones lies a transitional zone—the forest-steppe zone, where forest soils merge gradually with steppe soils.
Between the pedocals of the North and the pedalfers of the South lie the neutral soils. The floodplain of the Yangtze below the Three Gorges (the point where the river cuts through the Wu Mountains to empty onto the Hubei Plain) is overlain with a thick cover of noncalcareous alluvium. These soils, sometimes classified as paddy (rice-growing) soils, for the most part are exceedingly fertile and of good texture. The paddy soil is a unique type of cultivated soil, formed over a long period of time under the specific conditions of intensive rice cultivation.
Along the coast of North China are belts of saline and alkaline soil. They are associated with a combination of poor drainage and aridity, where precipitation is insufficient either to dissolve or to carry away the salts in solution.
The adverse effects of nature on the soil have been further intensified by centuries of concentrated cultivation, which has resulted in an almost universal deficiency of nitrogen and organic matter. The shortage of organic matter is primarily because farmers habitually remove crop stalks and leaves for livestock feed and fuel. The animal and human waste used for fertilizer contains too small an amount of organic matter to compensate for the loss of nutrients in the soil. The soils are also often deficient in phosphorus and potassium, but these deficiencies are neither so widespread nor so severe as that of nitrogen.
At one time, half of the territory of present-day China may have been covered by forests, but now less than one-tenth of the country is forested. Extensive forests in central and southern China were cleared for farmlands, resulting in the inevitable erosion of soils from the hillsides and their deposition in the valleys. Farmers have constructed level terraces, supported by walls, in order to hold back water for rice fields, thus effectively controlling erosion. Wherever elaborate terraces have been built, soil erosion is virtually absent, and stepped terraces have become one of the characteristic features of the rural landscape. (Britannica)
For additional information about the Soils, visit;
www.britannica.com/place/China/Soils
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The China Soils Museum was founded in 2016 by Hongda Xingye Co., Ltd. The China Soils Museum functions as a collection and exhibition center and seeks to establish a platform for studying soil samples. It strives to grow a professional R&D team through facilitating the collection of and further research on soil samples, so as to provide steadfast support to the research of GIWSR (Guangdong Institute of World Soil Resources).
The China Soils Museum displays typical cross-section soil samples collected from home and abroad with detailed introductions beside them, including their structure, chemical composition, and suitable crop growing conditions. The museum is divided into two parts, one for displaying samples collected from the seven major regions of China, namely South, Central, North, East, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast China, the other for samples collected from all over the world.
For additional information about the Soils Museum, visit;
A hydric soil is a soil that formed under conditions of saturation, flooding or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part.
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. Water saturation (hydrology) largely determines how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil. Wetlands may support both aquatic and terrestrial species. The prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favor the growth of specially adapted plants (hydrophytes) and promote the development of characteristic wetland (hydric) soils.
The concept of hydric soils includes soils developed under sufficiently wet conditions to support the growth and regeneration of hydrophytic vegetation. Soils that are sufficiently wet because of artificial measures are included in the concept of hydric soils. Also, soils in which the hydrology has been artificially modified are hydric if the soil, in an unaltered state, was hydric. Some soil series, designated as hydric, have phases that are not hydric depending on water table, flooding, and ponding characteristics.
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
For more information about Hydric Soils and their Field Indicators, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
For more soil related images, visit:
Soil profile: A representative profile of Dothan loamy sand. The Dothan series consists of very deep, well drained, loamy soils.
Landscape: Peanuts that are ready to harvest in an area of Dothan soil in Dothan-Norfolk complex, 2 to 5 percent slopes. This soil is considered prime farmland and is well suited for cultivated crops. (Soil Survey of Screven County, Georgia; by Gary C. Hankins, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Dothan soils formed in thick beds of unconsolidated, medium to fine-textured marine sediments. They are commonly on interfluves with slopes of 0 to 15 percent. Most areas of Dothan soils have been cleared and are used for the production of corn, cotton, peanuts, vegetable crops, hay, and pasture. Forested areas are in longleaf pine, loblolly pine, sweetgum, southern red oak, and hickory.
Mean annual temperature is about 18 degrees C (65 degrees F), and the mean annual precipitation is about 1360 millimeters (53 inches).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Plinthic Kandiudults
Plinthite: Depth to horizons that contain 5 percent or more plinthite ranges from 60 to 152 centimeters (24 to 60 inches).
Silt content is less than 20 percent.
Clay content is between 18 to 35 percent in the upper 51 centimeters (20 inches) of the Bt horizon.
Depth to Redox features: Predominantly greater than 102 centimeters (40 inches), but some pedons have iron depletions below a depth of 76 centimeters (30 inches).
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA): The series occurs primarily in the Southern Coastal Plain (MLRA 133A), but it also occurs to a lesser extent in the Atlantic Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 153A).
Extent: large extent
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/georgia/screve...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DOTHAN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Orangeburg series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands of the Southern Coastal Plain (MLRA 133A). They formed in loamy and clayey marine sediments. Near the type location, the average annual temperature is about 65 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 52 inches. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kandiudults
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Orangeburg soils are used for growing cotton, corn, tobacco and peanuts. Some areas are in pasture and woodland. Forest species include longleaf pine, shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, various oaks, hickory and dogwood.
The soils in Sumter County are low in natural fertility.
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-sumter-county-sou...
Regular applications of lime and fertilizer are needed. Most of the soils are naturally very strongly acid, strongly acid, or moderately acid. They commonly require regular applications of ground limestone to maintain or raise the pH sufficiently for good crop growth. The supply of available phosphorus and potash is naturally low in most of these soils. On the deep, sandy soils, split applications of fertilizer are needed because of leaching. On all of the soils, additions of lime and fertilizer should be based on the results of soil tests, on the needs of the crops, and on the expected level of yields.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Southern Coastal Plain of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the Orangeburg County soil survey area, visit:
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-orangeburg-county...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
A profile of a taxadjunct of the Knowlton series (fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Endoaquults) showing the mottled color pattern (redoximorphic features) which develop under saturated conditions (Soil Survey of New River Gorge National River, West Virginia by Wendy Noll and James Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service).
The Knowlton series consists of very deep, poorly drained soils that formed in alluvium weathered from interbedded Mississippian aged shale, sandstone, siltstone, limestone, and dolomite. Slopes range from 0 to 4 percent, but are dominantly 2 percent or less.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Endoaquults
Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches or more. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Coarse fragments, mostly rounded quartzite or sandstone gravels, range from 0 to 15 percent throughout the profile. Reaction is strongly acid to neutral in the surface layer and very strongly acid to moderately acid in the subsoil.
USE AND VEGETATION: Chiefly used as pasture, but some areas under artificial drainage are cropped to corn, soybeans, and legume-grass hay. A few isolated areas remain in woodland.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, West Virginia, and possibly Tennessee or Ohio. Series is moderate in extent.
The Knowlton series replaces areas previously included with the Morehead or Melvin series. The series may also be useful in replacing 1,210 acres of Peoga soils with a low base that were correlated in Montgomery County, Kentucky. The 2005 update revises the pedon description with terminology from version 2.0 of the "Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" after review of the original field notes. A map compilation error has placed the OSD location for this series in a delineation of Ne-Newark silt loam, frequently flooded map unit and is slated for correction during routine maintenance (Soil Survey of Powell and Wolfe Counties, Kentucky, 1993).
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/west_virginia/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/K/KNOWLTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Inceptisols are one of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Inceptisols are soils of relatively new origin and are characterized by having only the weakest appearance of horizons, or layers, produced by soil-forming factors. They are the most abundant on Earth, occupying almost 22 percent of all non-polar continental land area. Their geographic settings vary widely, from river deltas to upland forests to tundra environments. For example, they occur in the Mississippi valley, central Europe, the Amazon region, northeastern India, Indonesia, and Alaska. They are usually arable with appropriate control of erosion or drainage.
For more information on Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class/
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Bonneau soil series:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BONNEAU.html
Soil scientists are actively involved in solving many of society's most pressing problems. World hunger, environmental quality, urban growth, and climate change are all issues currently being addressed by soil scientists around the world. You can visit the web site of the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina State University to learn more about becoming a soil scientist:
cals.ncsu.edu/crop-and-soil-sciences/
A soil scientist is a person who is qualified to evaluate and interpret soils and soil-related data for the purpose of understanding soil resources as they contribute to not only agricultural production, but as they affect environmental quality and as they are managed for protection of human health and the environment. The university degree should be in Soil Science, or closely related field (i.e., natural resources, environmental science, earth science, etc.) and include sufficient soils-related course work so the Soil Scientist has a measurable level of understanding of the soil environment, including soil morphology and soil forming factors, soil chemistry, soil physics, and soil biology, and the dynamic interaction of these areas.
The layers within a soil are called soil horizons. The arrangement of these horizons in a soil is known as a soil profile. Soil scientists, who are also called pedologists, observe and describe soil profiles and soil horizons to classify and interpret the soil for various uses.
"Bt3--40 to 50 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) sandy clay loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few medium tubular pores; many clay bridging of sand grains few faint clay films on faces of some peds; many medium distinct gray (10YR 6/1) iron depletions and common medium faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of oxidized iron; few fine uncoated sand grains (in old root pores); very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary."
To learn more about describing soil horizons, visit;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlyDyQT6_WE
To learn about the Field Book for describing soils, visit;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For more soil related images, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Cegin series (Dystric Stagnosols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/wrb_list.cfm
The Cegin series comprises seasonally waterlogged loamy and clayey cambic stagnogley soils. They are intractable for much of the year unless artificially drained and their slowly permeable subsoils are coarsely structured and often compact at depth. These soils are widespread over Silurian and Ordovician sedimentary rocks in Wales but also occurs in the Midlands and Northern England, commonly on undulating till-covered lowlands or on footslopes and valley floors. Hallsworth, Nercwys, Barton and East Keswick series are minor components occurring locally.
The nature of Cegin soils varies with topography and parent material (Thompson 1982). On convex hilltops compact slowly permeable material may be near the surface as a result of truncation. On footslopes, profiles have permeable finely structured upper horizons in colluvium overlying the more compact layers characteristic of stagnogley soils. In some Cegin soils there is a thin clayey horizon possibly formed by in situ weathering.
Cegin soil absorbs only a small proportion of winter rain. In wet districts Cegin. Grass, much of it long-term, is the main crop but a little barley and roots are grown. Potential grass yields are large because growth is rarely or only slightly restricted by droughtiness but surface wetness can delay early fertilizer applications and the land may remain too wet for grazing cattle many weeks after growth starts. The autumn flush of growth potentially provides useful late grazing but it cannot always be used as the grazing season is several weeks shorter than the growing season. Grazing, silage harvesting and slurry spreading on wet land all lead to poaching or compaction of surface horizons with consequent deterioration of sward composition, soil drainage and yield. Land work is best done in autumn and, in normal years, opportunities for spring cultivation are very limited although some is carried out on adequately drained land. Cereal cropping is often affected by poor weather causing delays at harvest time. Late harvesting then prevents the land being worked when conditions are otherwise suitable. As with other wet soils, fungal diseases transmitted on stubble infect susceptible cereal crops and limit productivity.
In Wales and the North some of this land is afforested. For new coniferous plantations, the Forestry Commission recommends deep double mouldboard ploughing at 4 m spacing downslope with connecting cross drains before planting either Sitka or Norway spruce. Trees normally respond to phosphorus fertilizers given either at planting or as a subsequent top-dressing. Unless controlled, grass growth smothers young trees.
For additional information about the soil association, visit:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=71304
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
The Mosquito series (a hydric soil) is very shallow to moderately deep, very poorly drained soils over permafrost. They formed in silty alluvium or organic matter over alluvium in regions of groundwater discharge on alluvial plains in broad valleys and flats. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, subgelic Ruptic Histoturbels
Groundwater discharge neutralizes organic acids in the organic horizon, and results in a higher pH of these horizons than in most other Ruptic Histoturbels in this region. Because permafrost is relatively impermeable, groundwater must be discharged through associated unfrozen soils.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mosquito soils are used for wildlife habitat and watershed protection. Soil drainage is not improved sufficiently by clearing to allow agricultural use. The soils support forest of tamarack and black spruce, with shrub birch and cottonsedge in the understory.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 229, Interior Alaska Lowlands. The series is of moderate extent.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MOSQUITO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Zanesville soils are deep or very deep and moderately well drained with slow permeability. Depth to a fragipan ranges from 60 to 99 centimeters. They formed in loess over residuum derived from sandstone, siltstone, and shale. (Photo by Stephen Patton, UK agricultural communications.)
Landscape: Aerial view of soils and landscape of the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center, Princeton, KY. The Agricultural Experiment Station was established in 1885 as the research arm of the College of Agriculture of the University of Kentucky, Kentucky's Land Grant Institution. In fulfillment of statewide responsibilities to serve the research needs of agriculture and rural citizens, experimental work is conducted under a variety of climatic and soil conditions in all parts of the state. (Photo by Stephen Patton, UK agricultural communications.)
They are on hillslope, interfluve, ridge and saddle positions on uplands and are used for row crops, pasture and woodland. Where cultivated, corn, soybeans, wheat, and tobacco is commonly grown. Where wooded, white oak, black oak, post oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, tulip poplar, dogwood, and sassafras are common species.
For more information, visit:
news.ca.uky.edu/article/fragipan-field-day-shows-research...
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs
Distribution: Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
Extent: Extent is large.
For additional information about Kentucky soils, visit:
uknowledge.uky.edu/pss_book/4/
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/Z/ZANESVILLE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a Spodosol in Belgium. (Photo provided by Munsell Color.)
The central concept of Spodosols is the presence of a spodic horizon 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 spodic horizon may be destroyed by cultivation, yet spodic materials may still be present. In undisturbed soils there commonly is an overlying eluvial horizon, generally with a gray or light gray color similar to that of uncoated quartz. In some Spodosols this horizon is too thin to be preserved after cultivation, while in others it is very thick. Below the spodic horizon, there may be a fragipan or another sequum that has an argillic horizon. A few Spodosols have a placic horizon either on or within a spodic horizon or on a fragipan. Some Spodosols have layers thicker than a placic horizon that are cemented by spodic materials and organic matter (ortstein).
Spodosols are most extensive in areas of cool, humid or perhumid climates. They also formed, however, in hot, humid tropical regions and in warm, humid regions, where they occur mostly in areas of quartz-rich sands that have a fluctuating level of ground water. In many of the latter soils, the silt and sand fractions contain very few weatherable minerals and the albic horizons tend to be thick. Soils with an albic horizon 200 cm or more thick, however, are excluded from Spodosols and are grouped with Entisols. Some of the very deep spodic horizons may be buried, but it seems likely that others have formed at great depths because the overlying soil materials have very little iron and aluminum that could precipitate the organic carbon.
The Spodosols in the United States occur mainly in areas of late-Pleistocene or Holocene deposits. They are common in Alaska, in the higher mountains of the West, in the Great Lakes States, in the Northeast, and along the Atlantic coast of both the United States and Canada. They also occur in Northern Europe and northwestern Asia as well as New Zealand and southern Australia. Most are covered with coniferous or, less commonly, hardwood forests if they are not cultivated or grazed. In tropical areas the vegetation may be rain forest, palms, or a savanna that probably is anthropic. The moisture regime of Spodosols is mostly udic, but a few of the soils have a xeric regime. Some have aquic conditions. Spodosols may have any soil temperature regime. Spodosols are naturally infertile, but they can be highly responsive to good management. Under cultivation, the spodic horizon may be biologically destroyed, particularly if lime and nitrogen are applied.
For more information about determining accurate soil color, visit:
munsell.com/color-blog/soil-formation-process-archaeology/
For additional information about soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class...
A representative soil profile of Clifton clay loam, 8 to 15 percent slopes, moderately eroded from the Soil Survey of Buncombe County, North Carolina by Mark S. Hudson, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. (Weaverville USGS topographic quadrangle; lat. 35 degrees 44 minutes 15.3 seconds N. and long. 82 degrees 33 minutes 46.2 seconds W.)
Clifton soils are very deep over saprolite. In the survey area, they occur on intermountain hills and low or intermediate mountains, predominantly in the central and southern parts.
The Clifton series consists of very deep, well drained, moderate permeability soils on ridges and side slopes of the Blue Ridge (MLRA 130). Slopes are 2 to 50 percent. They formed in residuum weathered from intermediate and mafic igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks that are high in ferromagnesium minerals.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 30 to more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to slightly acid, except where surface layers have been limed. Content of flakes of mica is few or common throughout Content of coarse fragments ranges from 0 to 35 percent by volume throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION: About one-half of the area of this soil is forested. The dominant trees are yellow poplar, eastern white pine, scarlet oak, pitch pine, Virginia pine, and shortleaf pine. The dominant understory is rhododendron, mountain laurel, flowering dogwood, sourwood, serviceberry, American holly, red maple, and black locust. Cleared areas are used for pasture, corn, and hayland. Some areas are in burley tobacco, small grains, and vegetable crops..
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Blue Ridge (MLRA 130) of North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The series has large extent.
See following image:
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/21547353138/
The drive along the Al Qua'a-Um al Zamool road bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia is amazing. It is the best area to view the largest star dunes in this area of the Rub' al Khali. The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Soil profile: A profile of Dechel silty clay, 0 to 2 percent slopes. This is a bottom-land soil with a high water table. Wet soil conditions are indicated by the gray soil matrix and the oxidized (rust-colored) root channels. This site is in the Ngerikiil Valley, Airai State, Babeldaob Island. (Soil Survey of the Islands of Palau, Republic of Palau. by Jason L. Nemecek and Robert T. Gavenda, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Dechel silty clay, 0 to 2 percent slopes, on bottom land. This soil is relatively fertile and is well suited to wetland taro. It is one of the principal agricultural soils in Palau. The hillsides in the background are mapped as Palau silty clay loam, 6 to 12 percent slopes (map unit 636). This landscape is located in Airai State, Babeldaob Island.
The Dechel series consists of very deep, very poorly drained soils on swamps, marshes, backswamps, and flood plains of valley floors located on volcanic islands. These soils formed in formed in organic deposits and alluvial sediments derived from basalt, andesite, dacite, marine deposits, volcanic breccias, tuff, bedded tuff, or schist. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high in the subsoil and in the underlying material. Slope is 0 to 2 percent. The mean annual rainfall is about 3685 millimeters (145 inches), and the mean annual temperature is about 27 C (81 F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Very-fine, mixed, semiactive, acid, isohyperthermic Fluvaquentic Endoaquepts
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are in wetland taro (Crytosperma and Colocasia) patches or swamp forest plant communities and are used for production of taro, watershed, and wildlife. Native vegetation includes; Campnosperma brevipetiolata, Horsfieldia amklaal, Stemmonorus ammui, Samadera indica, Callophyllum pelewense, Inocarpus fagifer, Hibiscus tiliaceous, Pandanus kanehirae, Crudia cynometroides, Dolichandrone, Barringtonia racemosa, Donax canneformis, Hanguana malayana
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 193 Volcanic Islands of Western Micronesia; Republic of Palau; Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia. These soils of this series are of small extent; about 1,100 acres in the Republic of Palau; about 1,100 acres in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia. They are mapped on the islands of Babeldaob, Republic of Palau and Yap, Federated States of Micronesia.
The Dechel series had an O horizon when originally mapped in 1980 but due to changes in management practices such as; drainage ditches, fluctuating water table, lack of organic inputs, and turning over the soil. Over time, the organic matter has been oxidized and removed from the system. Now much of the Dechel series with O horizons can only be found in native vegetation. Dechel soils that formed in alluvium derived from soils that formed from schist typically have a higher pH value and base status than Dechel soils derived from soils on volcanic parent material. Dechel soils in Yap are classified as Fluvaquents and derived from schist. These soils have a high water table, are susceptible to subsidence, and have poor engineering properties.
The traditional system of agriculture included intensive taro cultivation. The soil is first dug out down to the fresh water lens, tall grasses and sedges, weeds, and young trees are removed or pushed into the mud as fertilizer. The soil is turned over and work, which requires the Palauans to dig down deep as far as they can with their hands and lift the mud and organic matter to turn it over. Wood ashes, twigs, grasses, and leaves are added below the mud to keep insects, fungus, and bacteria away and for fertilizer.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/pacific_basin/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DECHEL.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Augusta soils are somewhat poorly drained, moderately permeable soil on stream terraces in the Piedmont of the southeastern U.S. They formed in loamy alluvial sediments.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Aeric Endoaquults
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Mostly cultivated
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--corn, oats, soybeans, small grain, and pasture. Where wooded--white oak, red oak, post oak, loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, hickory, red maple, sweetgum, and elm; understory plants include American holly, flowering dogwood, sassafras, greenbrier, giant cane and inkberry (bitter gallberry)
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and possibly South Carolina
Extent: Moderate
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/AUGUSTA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#augusta
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Soil Survey Manual, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
To directly access soils data/map, visit “Web Soil Survey”;
Coarse angular blocky soil ped.
In blocky structure, the structural units are blocklike or polyhedral. Coarse or very coarse peds will almost always break down to smaller units. They are bounded by flat or slightly rounded surfaces that are casts of the faces of surrounding peds. Typically, blocky structural units are nearly equidimensional but may grade to prisms or plates. The structure is described as angular blocky if the faces intersect at relatively sharp angles; as subangular blocky if the faces are a mixture of rounded and plane faces and the corners are mostly rounded. Blocky structures are common in subsoil but also occur in surface soils that have a high clay content. The strongest blocky structure is formed as a result of swelling and shrinking of the clay minerals which produce cracks. Sometimes the surface of dried-up sloughs and ponds shows characteristic cracking and peeling due to clays.
Peds are aggregates of soil particles formed as a result of pedogenic processes; this natural organization of particles forms discrete units separated by pores or voids. The term is generally used for macroscopic (visible; i.e. greater than 1 mm in size) structural units when observing soils in the field. Soil peds should be described when the soil is dry or slightly moist, as they can be difficult to distinguish when wet.
The "shiny" or "waxy" appearance on the faces of the ped are clay coatings (clay films). Clay films area thin coating of oriented clay on the surface of a soil aggregate or lining pores or root channels. Synonyms: clay coating, clay skin, argillan, or ferriargillan (if stained by iron), or organoargillan (if stained by organic matter).
There are five major classes of macrostructure seen in soils: platy, prismatic, columnar, granular, and blocky. There are also structureless conditions. Some soils have simple structure, each unit being an entity without component smaller units. Others have compound structure, in which large units are composed of smaller units separated by persistent planes of weakness.
For more information about the major principles and practices needed for making and using soil surveys and for assembling and using related soils data (Soil Survey Manual), visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
By spraying on the surface, the color of the fruit can be accelerated, and the size of the fruit can be increased. At the same time, the taste and quality of the fruit can be greatly improved.
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Exposed roadcut of a soil in western Stewart County, GA with petroferric contact at a depth of about 1 meter and 1.75 meter. The soils in this area were originally mapped as Cowarts with these soils identified as an inclusion in mapping.
Inset: Petroferric material (fresh broken fragment from an ironstone sheet). Specimens tested failed by foot pressure under full body weight but could not be broken by moderate force between hands, indicating a "strongly cemented" rupture resistance class. Excavaton difficulty was estimated to be very high, i.e., excavation by pick with over-the-head swing was moderately to markedly difficult.
To date these soils have been observed in Louisiana. Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They are estimated to occur throughout the Coastal Plain of the southeastern US.
A shallow Salidic Petrogypsid from the interior of the UAE.
These shallow mineral soils that are less than 50 cm deep (from the soil surface) to a root-limiting layer (petrogypsic or petrocalcic horizon, or a paralithic contact) excluding soils that are in a Lithic subgroup.
Salidic Petrogypsids are the Petrogypsids that have an ECe of more than 8 to less than 30 dS m −1 in a layer 10 cm or more thick, within 100 cm of the soil surface (UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy). The "salidic" subgroup in Petrogypsids is not currently recognized in Soil Taxonomy.
Petrogypsids are the Gypsids that have a petrogypsic horizon that has its upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. These soils occur in very arid areas of the world where the parent material is high in content of gypsum. When the petrogypsic horizon is close to the surface, crusting forms pseudohexagonal patterns on the soil surface. Petrogypsids occupy old surfaces. In Syria and Iraq, they are on the highest terraces along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These soils are not extensive in the United States but are extensive in other countries.
The petrogypsic horizon is a horizon in which visible secondary gypsum has accumulated or has been transformed. The horizon is cemented (i.e., extremely weakly cemented through indurated cementation classes), and the cementation is both laterally continuous and root limiting, even when the soil is moist. The horizon typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils (foreground).
Gypsids are the Aridisols that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon within 100 cm of the soil surface. Accumulation of gypsum takes place initially as crystal aggregates in the voids of the soils. These aggregates grow by accretion, displacing the enclosing soil material. When the gypsic horizon occurs as a cemented impermeable layer, it is recognized as the petrogypsic horizon. Each of these forms of gypsum accumulation implies processes in the soils, and each presents a constraint to soil use.
One of the largest constraints is dissolution of the gypsum, which plays havoc with structures, roads, and irrigation delivery systems. The presence of one or more of these horizons, with or without other diagnostic horizons, defines the great groups of the Gypsids. Gypsids occur in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, West Asia, and some of the most arid areas of the western part of the United States. Gypsids are on many segments of the landscape. Some of them have calcic or related horizons that overlie the gypsic horizon.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
A Calcic Petrogypsid from the interior of the UAE.
Calcic Petrogypsids have a calcic horizon overlying a petrogypsic horizon.
The calcic horizon is an illuvial horizon in which secondary calcium carbonate or other carbonates have accumulated to a significant extent.
The petrogypsic horizon is a horizon in which visible secondary gypsum has accumulated or has been transformed. The horizon is cemented (i.e., extremely weakly cemented through indurated cementation classes), and the cementation is both laterally continuous and root limiting, even when the soil is moist.
Petrogypsids are the Gypsids that have a petrogypsic horizon that has its upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. These soils occur in very arid areas of the world where the parent material is high in content of gypsum. When the petrogypsic horizon is close to the surface, crusting forms pseudohexagonal patterns on the soil surface. Petrogypsids occupy old surfaces. In Syria and Iraq, they are on the highest terraces along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These soils are not extensive in the United States but are extensive in other countries.
Gypsids are the Aridisols that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon within 100 cm of the soil surface. Accumulation of gypsum takes place initially as crystal aggregates in the voids of the soils. These aggregates grow by accretion, displacing the enclosing soil material. When the gypsic horizon occurs as a cemented impermeable layer, it is recognized as the petrogypsic horizon. Each of these forms of gypsum accumulation implies processes in the soils, and each presents a constraint to soil use. One of the largest constraints is dissolution of the gypsum, which plays havoc with structures, roads, and irrigation delivery systems. The presence of one or more of these horizons, with or without other diagnostic horizons, defines the great groups of the Gypsids. Gypsids occur in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, West Asia, and some of the most arid areas of the western part of the United States. Gypsids are on many segments of the landscape. Some of them have calcic or related horizons that overlie the gypsic horizon.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...