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“The Bridge of Freedom”, which was once the only direct link to Camp Greaves, Liberty Bell and Panmunjom lies within the Imjingak. The Freedom bridge crosses the Imjin river and connects with the North-South railway. It is a former railroad bridge which was used by repatriated POWs/soldiers returning from the north. It is no longer accessible.
For more information about the bridge, visit;
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=freedom+bridge+dmz&view=...
The Imjin River is the 7th largest river in Korea. It flows from north to south, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, near the Yellow Sea. In the popular novel "MASH - a novel about three army doctors", the MASH 4077 unit is located close to a branch of the Imjin river.
The South Korean Army supervises farming in this area. Farmers must have a pass to cross any of the three bridges, guarded by South Korean soldiers, leading to the CCZ. Normally, range control officials and Army explosive ordnance disposal teams would clear munitions from the area annually. But many of these areas are swampy, and teams can only look for duds on the surface.
Additionally, the entire area just south of the DMZ is rife with mines. Many are newer mines laid by the South Korean Army as part of the DMZ defense. But there are unmarked mine fields, and monsoon rains shift mines around. Korean contractors and 8th Army personnel have uncovered numerous mines while conducting maintenance and training.
For more information about the area, visit;
A Plinthaquic Kanhapludult soil on stream terrace in Mines Gerais, Brazil.
Plinthaquic Kanhapludults.—These soils have, in one or more horizons within 75 cm of the mineral soil surface, redox depletions with chroma of 2 or less and also aquic conditions for some time in normal years (or artificial drainage). They have 5 to 50 percent (by volume) plinthite in one or more horizons within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. They are intergrades between Plinthaquults and Kanhapludults. They are not known to occur in the United States. The subgroup is defined for use in other parts of the world.
Soil profile: Caguabo soils are characterized by a surface layer of clay loam and a subsurface layer of paragravelly silty clay loam over basalt bedrock.
Landscape: Naturalized pastureland in an area of Caguabo clay loam, 20 to 60 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of San Germán Area, Puerto Rico by Jorge L. Lugo-Camacho, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Setting
Landscape: Hills and mountains
Landform: Hillslopes and mountain slopes
Major uses: Wildlife habitat
Elevation: 500 to 2,460 feet
Composition
Caguabo and similar soils: 85 percent
Dissimilar soils: 15 percent
Typical Profile
Surface layer:
0 to 2 inches—very dark brown clay loam
Subsoil:
2 to 13 inches—dark reddish brown extremely paragravelly clay
Bedrock:
13 to 23 inches—highly fractured, unconsolidated chert
23 inches—hard, consolidated chert rock
Minor Components
Dissimilar:
• Múcara soils, which are moderately deep to bedrock
• Scattered areas of volcanic rock outcrop
Similar:
• Steeper Caguabo soils
Soil Properties and Qualities
Depth class: Shallow
Depth to bedrock: 5 to 19 inches
Parent material: Residuum and colluvium that weathered from basalt bedrock
Surface runoff: Very high
Drainage class: Well drained
Permeability: Moderate
Available water capacity: Very low
Flooding: None
Hazard of water erosion: Moderate to very severe
Rock fragments in the surface layer: Less than 15 percent, by volume, mostly pebbles
and cobbles
Extent of rock outcrop: Less than 10 percent
Shrink-swell potential: Low
Natural fertility: Moderate
Content of organic matter in the surface layer: Moderately low or moderate
Reaction: Moderately acid to neutral
Land Use
Dominant uses: Wildlife habitat
Other uses: Forestland; cropland
Agricultural Development
Cropland
Suitability: Poorly suited
Commonly grown crops: Pigeonpeas
Management concerns: Depth to rock; slope
Management measures and considerations:
• Using a resource management system that includes terraces and diversions, stripcropping, contour tillage, no-till planting, and crop residue management reduces the hazard of erosion, helps to control surface runoff, and maximizes rainfall infiltration.
• Restricting tillage to periods when the soil is not wet minimizes clodding and crusting.
• Applying lime and fertilizer on the basis of soil testing increases the availability of nutrients to plants and maximizes productivity.
Pasture and hayland
Suitability: Poorly suited to pasture; unsuited to hayland
Commonly grown crops: Guineagrass
Management concerns: Erosion
Management measures and considerations:
• Erosion is a concern in unprotected areas.
• Returning crop residue to the soil improves the retention of soil moisture and increases the supply of plant nutrients.
• Overgrazed pastures should be reestablished and then protected from further overgrazing.
• Preventing overgrazing and restricting grazing to periods when the soil is not too wet help to prevent soil compaction and to maintain productivity and tilth.
Naturalized pastureland
Suitability: Poorly suited
Management concerns: Depth to rock; slope
Management measures and considerations:
• Overgrazed areas should be reestablished and then protected from further overgrazing.
• Preventing overgrazing and restricting grazing to periods when the soil is not too wet help to prevent soil compaction and to maintain productivity and tilth.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/puerto_rico/PR...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CAGUABO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Cottonbend soils formed in several feet of alluvium or colluvium on gently sloping to moderately steep high stream terraces or benches along valley sides. They are characterized by increasing clay content with depth and a striking change in color at the point of contact with significantly older underlying material. (Soil Survey of Gauley River National Recreation Area, West Virginia; by Aron Sattler and James Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-gauley-river-nati...
Landscape: An example of Cottonbend loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes used for the production of hay on a high-level river terrace. Cottonbend soils are mostly cleared and used for growing corn or tobacco and are used for producing hay and as pasture. (Soil Survey of Rockbridge County, Virginia; by Mary Ellen Cook, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Cottonbend series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in alluvium or colluvium weathered mainly from sandstone, siltstone and shale; and some limestone. These gently sloping to moderately steep soils are on high stream terraces or benches on valley sides. Slopes range from 2 to 25 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudults
Solum thickness is more than 60 inches and depth to bedrock is greater than 72 inches. Rock fragments, mostly well rounded sandstone, siltstone, and shale gravel and cobbles, range from 0 to 35 percent in the upper part of the solum and from 0 to 60 percent below a depth of about 24 inches. Reaction ranges from very strongly to slightly acid in the upper part, and very strongly to moderately acid in the lower part.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly cleared and used for growing corn or tobacco, also used for producing hay and as pasture. Original forests were mixed hardwoods interspersed with a few pines, primarily upland oaks, hickories, yellow-poplar, and shortleaf and Virginia pines.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Cottonbend soils are in the Cumberland-Allegheny Plateau area of southeastern Kentucky, the Valley and Ridge area of Virginia, and possibly other similar areas in West Virginia and eastern Tennessee. Extent is small.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/COTTONBEND.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Palouse soils are on hills at elevations of 1,600 to 4,500 feet. Slopes are 0 to 60 percent. These soils formed in Late Wisconsin loess which contains some volcanic ash in the upper part. Summers are warm and dry; winters are cool and moist. The average annual precipitation ranges from 18 to 25 inches. Average January temperature is 27 to 30 degrees F, average July temperature is 67 to 70 degrees F. The mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 51 degrees F. and on the average frost-free season is about 100 to 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Caldwell, Garfield, Gwin, Latah, Latahco, Mondovi, Naff, Thatuna, Tilma, and Waha soils. Caldwell and Mondovi soils have irregular distribution of organic matter with depth. Garfield soils have an ochric epipedon and have a fine argillic horizon. Gwin soils have a lithic contact at 10 to 20 inches. Latah and Tilma soils have a fine textured argillic horizon. Latahco soils are frigid. Naff and Thatuna soils have an argillic horizon. Waha soils are fine-loamy and have a lithic contact at 20 to 40 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow to rapid runoff; permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for dryland cropland. Small grains, peas, lentils, alfalfa, and grasses for hay and pasture are common crops. Native vegetation is Idaho fescue, bluebunch wheatgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, arrowleaf balsamroot, common snowberry, and wild rose.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and northern Idaho. Series is extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/PALOUSE.html
For a detailed soil description, visit:
Soil profile: A typical profile of Hard Labor soil. 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 Butts County, Georgia; by James R. Lathem, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: The Hard Labor soils are also on summits and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. There is a perched water table in late winter and early spring. 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. 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, small grains, and to a lesser extent tobacco.
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 a detailed soil description, visit:
Apparent field texture.—A tactile evaluation of soil texture in the field, with no inference as to expected laboratory results for textural analysis. Some soil samples cannot be adequately dispersed in the laboratory for accurate texture analysis using standard procedures. Factors that hinder the effectiveness of standard procedures for particle-size analysis include high content of low-activity clays or iron oxides, andic or spodic materials in soils having an isotic mineralogy class, carbonates, and gypsiferous materials. These soils tend to have ratios of 1500 kPa water to clay outside the normally expected range of 0.25 to 0.6, and clay content is therefore estimated rather than measured for family particle-size class as indicated in Soil Taxonomy (see note preceding item C in the key to particle-size and substitute classes). The apparent field texture reported in the soil profile description commonly appears coarser than the calculated result for placement in a taxonomic family particle-size class (e.g., fine sandy loam apparent field texture vs. fine family particle-size class).
Figure 11.—An Oxisol from the Cerredo physiographic region of Brazil. Oxisols may have 75 percent or more clay; however, both the structure and “feel” of Oxisols are deceptive. Upon first examination, the soil may appear structureless and have the feel of a loamy texture. The clay particles are bound by iron oxides in a matrix with strong, very fine and fine granular structure. As demonstrated in this sample, the apparent field texture was clay loam; however, laboratory analysis indicated the true texture was clay. The gritty feel is attributed to the very firm, very fine structural aggregates referred to as “pseudo sand”.
Poster of Soils from the UAE. Soils are the basis of agriculture and play a critical role in agricultural production as they provide the medium upon which crops can grow. 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 mining.
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Tate series. (Soil Survey of Polk County, North Carolina; by Scott C. Keenen, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Grass-legume hay and Christmas trees on Tate loam, 2 to 7 percent slopes. Tate soils are on colluvial fans, foot slopes, and benches in coves in the Blue Ridge (MLRA 130). Elevation ranges from 1400 to 4000 feet. The soil formed in colluvium weathered from felsic to mafic high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granite, mica gneiss, hornblende gneiss, and schist. (Soil Survey of Smyth County, Virginia; by Robert K. Conner, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Tate series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils. They formed in colluvium weathered from felsic to mafic high-grade metamorphic rocks. Mean annual temperature is 52 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation about 52 inches near the type location. Slope ranges from 2 to 50 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
Thickness of the solum ranges from 24 to more than 60 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Content of rock fragments is less than 35 percent by volume in the A and Bt horizons, and less than 60 percent in the BC and C horizons. The soil is very strongly acid to slightly acid unless limed. Content of mica flakes is few or common.
USE AND VEGETATION: About half is cleared and used for growing corn, small grain, tobacco, truck crops, and pasture. Common trees in forested areas are scarlet oak, white oak, yellow-poplar, eastern white pine, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, and northern red oak. Understory plants include mountain-laurel, rhododendron, blueberry, greenbrier, flowering dogwood, black locust, honeysuckle, sourwood, and flame azalea.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Blue Ridge (MLRA 130) of North Carolina, Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and possibly Georgia and South Carolina. The series has large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/north_carolina...
and...
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/virginia/VA173...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TATE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy presents information for keying out the soils of the United Arab Emirates into separate classes and provides a guide to associated laboratory methods. Additionally, it will help the international soil science community to converse about UAE soils, and facilitate comparison to soils of other regions. These linkages allow countries with similar mapping and classification procedures and similar soils to transfer agriculture technology without conducting long-term experiments under similar environmental conditions, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE).
AUTHORS:
Shabbir A. Shahid has more than 32 years of experience as a soil scientist in Pakistan, the UK, Kuwait, and the UAE. He served as lead soil taxonomist, technical coordinator, and quality assurance expert. He is a prolific author with over 150 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals and books and was a pioneer in soil survey on the Arabian Peninsula.
Mahmoud A. Abdelfattah served as mapping crew leader and deputy technical coordinator for the soil survey of Abu Dhabi Emirate and project manager for the Northern Emirates Soil Survey. He has over 25 years experience in teaching and research participating in numerous international conferences. He has authored over 50 published scientific papers and book chapters.
Michael A. Wilson is a Research Soil Scientist, USDA-NRCS-National Soil Survey Laboratory in Lincoln, Nebraska, He has served in this position for more than 25 years conducting soil genesis research specifically in the area of soil geochemistry and mineralogy. He has contributed to numerous USDA soils-related research projects in both the US and around the world specializing in climate change and soil classification/interpretation.
John A. Kelley is a soil scientist previously with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), United States Department of Agriculture and Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, UAE. John is a soil survey quality assurance expert and a specialist in soil mapping, soil classification, and correlation of soil survey projects. He has extensive experience in soil survey procedures and documentation including digital soil photography.
Joseph V. Chiaretti is a soil scientist with the USDA and serves on the soil survey standards staff at the NRCS National Soil Survey Center located in Lincoln, NE. He is responsible for developing and maintaining soil survey division handbooks and technical documents.
All terrestrial life ultimately depends on soil, energy, and water. Soils have always been central to human civilization and life. They are an integral part of the physical and cultural environment, and we may take them for granted and even tend to treat them contemptuously in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The rise and fall of civilizations have been closely linked with the use and abuse of soil and water resources. There is little reason to believe that these linkages will disappear in the future. It is therefore important to evaluate soils for their quality and link them to appropriate uses and services. In this publication, information is provided on soil classification and how to key out taxa relevant to UAE soils.
The recent soil inventory of the United Arab Emirates revealed that the UAE landscape is covered mainly by low-lying sandy deserts, mega-barchan dunes , extensive coastal salt flats, and alluvial and gravelly plains in both the far west and the east. The recent soil surveys revealed that a rather uniform-looking desert landscape has, in fact, a diversity of subsurface features that help to categorize the soils into 74 soil series and their phases. These features confirm the soil diversity in terms of classification, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, fertility, suitability for different uses, and vulnerability to land degradation. The objectives of this book are to provide information for keying out the soils of the United Arab Emirates into separate classes and to provide a guide to associated laboratory methods.
The classification used predominantly is extracted from the 11th edition of the USDA-NRCS Keys to Soil Taxonomy, and sections relevant to the soils found in the UAE are included here. Primarily, this key is designed to fit the soil system of the United Arab Emirates. Information not found in the USDA key has been added including criteria and classes for:
(1) differentiating anhydritic soils from gypsic soils;
(2) identifying “lithic” subgroups for Aquisalids and Haplosalids;
(3) identifying “salidic” subgroups within the great groups of Gypsids, Calcids, Psamments, and Orthents; and
(4) incorporation of phases for soil taxa.
The classes for the newly identified anhydrite soils in the UAE have been added at four different levels: the anhydritic subsurface diagnostic horizon and mineralogy class and the Anhydritic Haplosalids and Anhydritic Aquisalids subgroups. In addition, a horizon suffix of “aa” for layers with an accumulation of anhydrite has been incorporated. The concept of horizon suffix “k” also has an ad hoc expansion, beyond the official definition of pedogenic accumulations, to connote the simple presence of calcium carbonate as determined by effervescence in dilute hydrochloric acid. This usage is synonymous with the recently defined soil characteristic named “free carbonates” in the Keys to Soil Taxonomy.
The added classes or features that are proposed for USDA Soil Taxonomy are designated with a “†” in the Table of Contents and are footnoted in the text. The classes are in different stages of review and approval for use in the USDA soil taxonomy system; however, discussions regarding final approval and incorporation of the additions are ongoing. Other additions such as “Phases of soil taxa” are unique to the United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy and are not proposed for addition to the USDA system.
This book provides a mechanism for updating the current soil surveys and will facilitate the correlation of soils from new surveys within the UAE. Additionally, this book provides a source of information to help the international soil science community converse about UAE soils and their comparison to other soils. Commonality between classification systems used in different countries enhances linkages. These linkages allow countries with similar mapping and classification procedures and similar soils to transfer agriculture technology without conducting long-term experiments under similar environmental conditions.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
"United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy" and "ICBA News"
Profile of Acove soil and pastureland in an area of Acove-Menard complex, 0 to 5 percent slopes. These soils are moderately deep and well drained with a loamy surface layer and clayey subsoil. There is a characteristic stone line within the profile at approximately 40 to 60 cm. (Soil Survey of Mason County, Texas by Julia A. McCormick, Natural Resources Conservation Service}
For more information about the Soil Survey of Mason County, Texas ====> [CLICK HERE]
Setting
Major land resource area: MLRA 82A—Texas Central Basin
Landscape: Dissected plateaus
Soil Survey of Mason County, Texas 23
Elevation: 1,000 to 2,945 feet
Mean annual precipitation: 22 to 34 inches
Mean annual air temperature: 64 to 70 degrees F
Frost-free period: 210 to 260 days
Map unit prime farmland class: Not prime farmland
Composition
Acove and similar soils: 56 percent
Menard and similar soils: 30 percent
Minor components and similar soils: 14 percent
The composition of this map unit is based on cumulative field observations and descriptions from three transects with thirty observations of the map unit.
Landforms: Ridges
Geomorphic positions, two-dimensional: Shoulder, summit
Geomorphic positions, three-dimensional: Interfluve
Down-slope shape: Convex
Across-slope shape: Linear
Parent material: Residuum weathered from sandstone
Typical Profile
Surface layer:
0 to 6 inches; moderately acid sandy loam
Subsurface layer:
6 to 13 inches; moderately acid sandy loam
Subsoil layer:
13 to 19 inches; slightly acid sandy clay loam
19 to 26 inches; slightly acid very flaggy clay
26 to 35 inches; slightly acid clay
35 to 59 inches; moderately cemented sandstone bedrock
Properties and Qualities
Slope: 0 to 5 percent
Percent of area covered by surface fragments: Not assigned
Depth to first restrictive layer: 24 to 40 inches paralithic bedrock
Slowest soil permeability to 60 inches, above first cemented restrictive layer: 0.2 to 0.6 in/hr (moderately slow)
Slowest permeability to 60 inches, within and below first cemented restrictive layer: 0.6 to 2.0 in/hr (moderate)
Salinity, representative within 40 inches: Not saline
Salinity, maximum within 40 inches: Not saline
Sodicity, representative within 40 inches: Not sodic
Sodicity, maximum within 40 inches: Not sodic
Representative total available water capacity to 60 inches: About 4.6 inches (low)
Natural drainage class: Well drained
Runoff: Low
Flooding frequency: Not flooded
Interpretive Groups
Land capability nonirrigated: 3e
Land capability irrigated: None specified
Ecological site name: Sandy Loam 25-32" PZ
Ecological site number: R082AY373TX
Typical vegetation: Little bluestem, other perennial grasses, pinhole bluestem, sideoats grama, Canada wildrye, other annual forbs, other perennial forbs, plains bristlegrass, purpletop tridens, sand lovegrass, yellow Indiangrass, other trees, other shrubs
For a detailed soil description of Acove soil ====> [CLICK HERE]
For acreage and geographic distribution of Acove soil and to access "Soil Data Explorer" ====> [CLICK HERE]
Photo courtesy of EAD-Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. www.ead.gov.ae/
Commonly these soils remain as a barren land but are sometimes used for low intensity grazing by camel, sheep or goats. They typically have less than 5% vegetation cover of Cyperus conglomeratus, Haloxylon salicornicum and Zygophyllum spp.
These Gypsic Haplosalids are very deep, sandy soils with gypsum occurring at or near the soil surface and high concentrations of gypsum and salt in the subsoil. These soils occur on older sediments in deflation plains and at the higher margins of inland and coastal sabkhas throughout Abu Dhabi. They are well drained or somewhat excessively drained and permeability is rapid or moderately rapid. They are formed in old sand and gravel deposits.
The soils have been recorded in both inland and coastal sabkha and deflation plains in the central and eastern parts of the Emirate. The soil forms a minor component of map units in these areas. A few scattered sites have also been recorded from the western end of the Liwa Crescent.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
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:
Typical profile and landscape of Banister soil. Banister soils are moderately well drained, clayey soils on low stream terraces, mainly along major streams and rivers in the southern part of Iredell County, NC. They have a water table at a depth of 1.5 to 3 feet, mainly in the winter and early spring. (Soil Survey of Iredell County, North Carolina by Robert H. Ranson, Jr., and Roger J. Leab, Natural Resources Conservation Service).
Setting
Major land resource area: Southern Piedmont (MLRA 136)
Landscape: River and stream valley
Landform position: Low stream terrace
Elevation: 700 to 1,200 feet
Map Unit Composition
Banister and similar soils: Typically 55 percent, ranging from about 40 to 80 percent
Typical Profile of Banister
Surface layer:
0 to 13 inches; dark brown and yellowish brown fine sandy loam
Subsoil:
13 to 22 inches; yellowish brown clay loam that has red masses of oxidized iron
22 to 37 inches; brownish yellow clay that has strong brown masses of oxidized iron and light gray iron depletions
37 to 44 inches; light gray and pale yellow clay that has red masses of oxidized iron
44 to 50 inches; light gray, white, and light bluish gray sandy clay loam
Substratum:
50 to 80 inches; multicolored, stratified very gravelly coarse sand, sandy clay loam, gravelly sandy loam, and sand
Soil Properties and Qualities
Banister
Available water capacity: Moderate (about 8.2 inches)
Slowest saturated hydraulic conductivity: Moderately high (about 0.20 in/hr)
Depth class: Very deep (more than 60 inches)
Depth to root-restrictive feature: More than 60 inches
Agricultural drainage class: Moderately well drained
Depth to seasonal water saturation: About 18 to 36 inches
Water table kind: Apparent
Flooding hazard: Rare
Ponding hazard: None
Shrink-swell potential: Moderate
Runoff class: Low
Surface fragments: None
Parent material: Old clayey alluvium derived from igneous and metamorphic rock
Use and Management Considerations
Cropland
Suitability: Well suited
Management concerns: Erodibility, wetness, and trafficability
Management measures and considerations:
• Resource management systems that include terraces and diversions, stripcropping, contour tillage, no-till farming, and crop residue management help to minimize erosion, control surface runoff, and maximize the infiltration of rainfall.
• Delaying spring planting because of wetness from the seasonal high water table helps to prevent the clodding and rutting caused by equipment.
• Avoiding tillage when the soil is wet helps to prevent clodding and crusting.
• Management of surface water helps to reduce the wetness limitation and improve soil productivity.
• Applying lime and fertilizer according to recommendations based on soil tests helps to increase the availability of plant nutrients and maximize crop productivity.
Pasture and hayland
Suitability: Well suited
Management concerns: Wetness and trafficability
Management measures and considerations:
• Avoiding overgrazing and avoiding grazing when the soil is too wet help to prevent soil compaction, decreased productivity, and a rough soil surface.
• Fencing livestock away from creeks and streams and using pressure-fed watering tanks help to prevent streambank caving, sedimentation, and water contamination by animal waste.
• Applying lime and fertilizer according to recommendations based on soil tests helps to increase the availability of plant nutrients and maximizes productivity when establishing, maintaining, or renovating hayland and pasture.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
archive.org/details/usda-soil-survey-of-iredell-county-no...
For a detailed description of the soil, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BANISTER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
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.
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Fossil Rock is officially known as Jebel Maleihah and is part of the ridge which runs from Ras Al Khaimah to Al Ain. All along this ridge, in one specific and distinct layer, the same type of fossils can be found. However, they are not always easily accessible or even visible.
The large outcrop, known as "Fossil Rock", is the most popular area for fossil hunters in the UAE: at this site they can be found on the slopes quite easily. Or I`d rather say: they "could" be found easily. Due to the fact that this is one of the most known accessible fossil sites in the region, numerous hunters have been cutting and carving away the relics of our past. Nowadays, the name is still there but most of the visible fossils are gone. The layer is hammered out and destruction is near complete.
If you have a sharp eye and are lucky to spot fossils, you have most probably encountered "gastropods", more commonly known as snails or slugs. In theory, gastropods can be of various sizes and can live in the sea, fresh water or on land.
Those of Fossil Rock are marine gastropods: these creatures crawled on the ocean floor many million years ago when seawater covered most of the land, currently known as Arabia. The fossil history of this class goes all the way back to the late Cambrian (500 million years ago).
These soils are on summits and shoulders of marine terraces in the Southern Coastal Plain at elevation of 125 to 315 feet.
Map Unit Composition
Wagram and similar soils: Typically 28 percent, ranging from about 18 to 37 percent
Norfolk and similar soils: Typically 25 percent, ranging from about 15 to 34 percent
Lucknow and similar soils: Typically 16 percent, ranging from about 8 to 24 percent
For more information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/south_carolina...
Wagram soils are classified as loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Arenic Kandiudults.
For a detailed Wagram description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WAGRAM.html
Norfolk soils are classified as fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kandiudults.
For a detailed Norfolk description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/N/NORFOLK.html
Lucknow soils are classified as loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Grossarenic Kandiudults.
For a detailed Lucknow description, visit:
Saprolite (the light-colored area) is weathered bedrock which still retains the original lithic fabric and characteristics. The nature of the saprolite is influenced by the type of rock from which it develops, and it determines the chemical and physical properties of the associated soils. A common characteristic of the highly weathered finer textured granitic saprolite is a light, fluffy feel (low bulk density).
In soil science, the "C" horizon is the soil layer consisting of more or less weathered parent rock or deposited material that is little affected by pedogenesis (soil formation). However, if an overlying horizon contains a significant amount of clay, over time, the clay may be transported into and along vertical cracks or along channels within macropores creating thick clay coats or clay flows.
The question for this layer is the appropriate horizonation?
Clay films are a coating of oriented clay on the surface of sand grains (clay bridging), soil aggregates, or peds. Clay films also line pores or root channels. This form of orientated clay is considered a pedogenetic process resulting in diagnostic soil features and is most commonly associated with a structured "B" horizon.
The zones of clay accumulation (smooth brown area) in this substratum appears to be inflows at their thickest and weathered in situ where thinly layered--both areas absent of any ped formation or structure.
The "t" designation is most commonly associated with an argillic horizon. It indicates an accumulation of silicate clay that either has formed within a "horizon" and subsequently has been translocated within the horizon or that has been moved into the horizon by illuviation, or both. At least some part of the horizon shows evidence of clay accumulation, either as coatings on surfaces of peds or in pores, as lamellae, or as bridges between mineral grains.
However, is the "t" designation appropriate with any layer where clay coats (films) are present? It has been recognized with non-pedogenic materials such as paralithic materials where the faces of pararock fragments are coated with clayey material (Crt). Therefore, is a "Ct" designation appropriate where clay coats are present on plains of separation or vertical cracks. (See footnote--Keys to Soil Taxonomy, p. 340; "Indicates weathered bedrock or saprolite in which clay films are present.")
A C/B horizon has discrete, intermingled bodies of two horizons: C material dominates, with lesser but discrete bodies of B material; however, is this horizonation appropriate if the "B" part is entirely structureless translocated clay?
This condition leads to a possible separation of the historical pedogenic clay films from in-filling of clayey material, i.e., "clay flows".
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
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or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
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For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
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For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
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or;
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Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Monongahela soil series; the State Soil of West Virginia.
Landscape: Monongahela soils (in the foreground) are well suited to pasture and hay. (Soil Survey of Overton County, Tennessee; by Carlie McCowan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
These moderately well drained soils have a very firm, slowly permeable fragipan at a depth of about 60 centimeters. They have a perched water table during periods of seasonal wetness because of the fragipan. (Soil Survey of Morgan County, West Virginia; by James W. Bell, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Monongahela soils occur on more than 100,000 acres in 45 counties in West Virginia. These very deep, moderately well drained soils are on alluvial stream terraces that are not flooded. They are used extensively for cultivated crops, hay, pasture, woodland, and homesite development. Monongahela soils are considered prime farmland where slopes are 3 percent or less.
The soils are well suited to crop production. The Monongahela series was designated the Official State Soil by the West Virginia Legislature in April 1997. The name “Monongahela” is derived from a Native American word meaning “high banks or bluffs, breaking off and falling down in places.” The mean annual precipitation is about 45 inches, and the mean annual temperature is about 51 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Fragiudults
Depth to Top of Argillic: 13 to 46 cm (5 to 18 inches)
Depth to Bottom of Argillic: 102 to 183 cm (40 to 72 inches)
Solum thickness ranges from 102 to 183 cm (40 to 72 inches).
Depth to the fragipan ranges from 46 to 76 cm (18 to 30 inches).
Depth to Bedrock: Usually greater than 165 cm (65 inches)
Depth Class: Very Deep
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 41 to 76 cm (16 to 30 inches)
Rock Fragment Percent: rounded gravel and cobbles dominantly is 0 to 15 percent but ranges from 0 to 30 percent above the fragipan, from 0 to 35 percent in the fragipan, and from 10 to 40 percent in the C horizon. Cobbles are generally limited to the lower Btx, BC, C, and 2C horizons.
Reaction Class: Unless limed, the soil is strongly acid or very strongly acid throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: pasture, cultivated crops, and industrial and residential sites. Wooded acreage is generally limited.
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated, common crops are corn, soy beans, and wheat. There are some localized areas that still grow tobacco. Pasture and hayland commonly has mixtures of grasses and legumes. Where wooded, common trees include red oak, white oak, yellow-poplar, sycamore, white pine, and Virginia pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama.
Extent: Large
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MONONGAHELA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Landscape--channeled scablands
Landform--mounds on basalt plateaus
Slope--0 to 15 percent
Parent material--loess mixed with volcanic ash in upper part over basalt; minor amount of glaciofluvial deposits in lower part of some pedons
Mean annual precipitation--about 430 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about 9 degrees C
Depth class--deep
Drainage--well drained
Soil moisture regime--xeric
Soil temperature regime--mesic
Soil moisture subclass--typic
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Vitrandic Haploxerolls
USE AND VEGETATION:
Use--dominantly homesite development, crop production, and livestock grazing; some wildlife habitat and watershed
Common crops--small grain, hay, pasture
Potential natural vegetation--basin wildrye, common snowberry, Idaho fescue, bluebunch wheatgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, Wyeth eriogonum, common yarrow, lupine, rose, threadleaf sedge
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Washington; MLRA 9; small extent
The Ritter series appears to be very similar to this series. It should be investigated further to determine vitrandic features.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DENO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Arenic Plinthic Kandiudult (Fuquay series) from North Carolina. (Photo and comments courtesy of Stan Buol, NCSU.)
This profile was photographed in Johnston County, North Carolina. These soils are common on nearly level surfaces in the upper coastal plain. This profile has a sandy surface, plowed to a depth of about 35 cm extending to between 50 and 100 cm, under lain by a fine-loamy Bt (kandic) horizon with a CEC7 less than 16 cmols kg-1 clay and an iron-rich plinthite layer between 135 and 160 cm.
The red and white mottled material below 160 cm does not harden when repeatedly wetted and dried thus is not plinthite. With the thick sandy surface such soils tend to be draughty but are excellent for flue cured tobacco production, often with supplemental irrigation.
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Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults have a layer, starting at the mineral soil surface, that has a sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size class and is between 50 and 100 cm thick. They also have 5 to 50 percent (by volume) plinthite in one or more horizons within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. These soils are of very small extent in the United States.
Kandiudults are the Udults that are very deep and have a kandic horizon and a clay distribution in which the percentage of clay does not decrease from its maximum amount by as much as 20 percent within a depth of 150 cm from the mineral soil surface, or the layer in which the clay percentage decreases has at least 5 percent of the volume consisting of skeletans on faces of peds and there is at least a 3 percent (absolute) increase in clay content below this layer. These soils do not have a fragipan or a horizon in which plinthite either forms a continuous phase or constitutes one-half or more of the volume within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. Kandiudults are of moderate extent in the Southeastern United States.
Udults are the more or less freely drained, humus-poor Ultisols that have a udic moisture regime. They are in humid climates, and most receive well distributed rainfall. Most have light colored upper horizons, commonly a grayish horizon that rests on a yellowish brown to reddish argillic or kandic horizon. Some have a fragipan or plinthite, or both, in or below the argillic or kandic horizon. Udults developed in sediments and on surfaces that range from late Pleistocene to Pliocene or possibly older. Many are cultivated, either with the use of soil amendments or in a system in which they are cropped for a very few years and then are returned to forest to allow the trees to regather in their tissues the small supply of nutrients. Most of these soils have or had a forest vegetation, but some have a savanna that probably is anthropic.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
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To download the latest version of Soil Taxonomy, 2nd Edition, 1999, visit:
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For additional information about soil classification using Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition, 2022, visit:
[www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Keys-to-Soi...]
To download the latest version of Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition, 2022, visit:
[www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...]
For an Illustrated Guide to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
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Rhodic (great group, subgroup).—A term used as a formative element for some great groups of Alfisols and Ultisols and for some subgroups that are intergrades to those great groups. It is intended to group soils having very dark red color, which is indicative of free iron in the soil. The free iron and its form are important factors in determining the pH-dependent charge on the clay particles, and the charge on the particles in turn is a factor in maintaining the commonly observed stable structure in these soils even when cultivated intensively. These soils formed on basic or ultrabasic rocks, such as basalts and limestones. The content of phosphorus is generally higher in soils of the Rhodic great groups compared to those in other associated great groups of Alfisols and Ultisols. The combination of a natural source of cations and phosphorous contributes to the relatively high native fertility of the Rhodic soils.
Figure 93.—Soil profile of Cumberland soil (fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic Rhodic Paleudalf). These soils have dark reddish brown silty A horizons and dark red clayey Bt horizons. Rhodic Paleudalfs have, in all subhorizons in the upper 75 cm of the argillic horizon or throughout the entire argillic horizon if less than 75 cm thick, more than 50 percent colors that have hue of 2.5YR or redder; and value, moist, of 3 or less; and dry value no more than 1 unit higher than the moist value. The dominant color of the Bt horizon in this sample is dark red (10R 3/6).
The first edition of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) was released at the 16th World Congress of Soil Science at Montpellier in 1998. At the same event, it was also endorsed and adopted as the system for soil correlation and international communication of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). The second edition of the WRB was released at the 18th World Congress at Philadelphia in 2006.
After an additional eight years of intensive worldwide testing and data collection, the third edition of the WRB is presented. This publication builds on and reflects the valuable work of the authors of the earlier drafts and editions of the WRB, as well as the experiences and contributions of many soil scientists who participated in the work of the IUSS Working Group on the WRB.
The WRB is a soil classification system for naming soils and creating soil map legends. It is hoped that this publication will contribute to the understanding of soil science in the general public and in the scientific community.
The publication has been made possible by the sustained efforts of a large group of expert authors, as well as the cooperation and logistic support of the IUSS and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Peter Schad (Chair)
Cornie van Huyssteen (Vice-Chair)
Erika Michéli (Secretary)
IUSS Working Group WRB
Ronald Vargas
Land and Water Development Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
IUSS Working Group WRB. 2015. World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014, update 2015 International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. World Soil Resources Reports No. 106. FAO, Rome
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2015
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Soil erosion is the wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and animals (including humans). In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind (aeolian) erosion, zoogenic erosion and anthropogenic erosion such as tillage erosion. Soil erosion may be a slow process that continues relatively unnoticed, or it may occur at an alarming rate causing a serious loss of topsoil. The loss of soil from farmland may be reflected in reduced crop production potential, lower surface water quality and damaged drainage networks.
Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four main types of soil erosion: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion, and gully erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the soil erosion process, which is followed by sheet erosion, then rill erosion and finally gully erosion (the most severe of the four)
Wind erosion is a major geomorphological force, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. It is also a major source of land degradation, evaporation, desertification, harmful airborne dust, and crop damage—especially after being increased far above natural rates by human activities such as deforestation, urbanization, and agriculture
Wind erodibility group (WEG) and wind erodibility index (I) WEG is a general grouping of soils with similar properties affecting their resistance to soil blowing. Soil texture, size of soil aggregates, presence of carbonates, and the degree of decomposition in organic soils are the major criteria used in grouping the soils. The groups are numbered 1 through 8. The number 1 represents sandy soils, which are the most susceptible to wind erosion (fig. 26), and the number 8 represents gravelly or wet soils that are not subject to soil blowing. The wind erodibility index (I) is an estimate of soil loss in tons per acre per year. It is one of the criteria used in the determination of important farmland, including prime farmland.
USDA-NRCS publication "From the Surface Down", An Introduction to Soil Surveys for Agronomic Use, Second Edition, 2010.
A Gelic-Orthic Primosols and landscape These soils distribute on Tibetan Plateau, Tianshan Mountain Range, and the summit of Changbai Mountain. Climate in those areas is cold. There are various types of parent rocks, and most of them are hard rocks. Due to alpine ecological condition, only some oligothermal crust-like lichen grow on the leeward side of rocks and gravels. The soil solum is thin due to weak weathering degree. (Photos and notes courtesy of China Soils Museum, Guangdong Institute of World Soil Resources; with revision.)
In Chinese Soil Taxonomy, Primosols are recent soils with no diagnostic horizons or only an ochric epipedon. In Soil Taxonomy these soils are mostly Entisols or some Gelisols.
For additional information about this soil and the Soils Museum, visit:
www.giwsr.com/en/article/index/200
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The Imjin River is the 7th largest river in Korea. It flows from north to south, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, near the Yellow Sea.
These flood plains soils are along rivers draining regions that have acid subsoils (mostly Fluventic Dystrudepts). They formed in Holocene or recent alluvium. They are subject to occasional flooding but receive little fresh alluvium, except the low-lying areas adjacent to the river channel.
Fluventic Dystrudepts are moderately extensive in the United States. They are widely distributed. The largest concentration is in the Northeastern States. The native vegetation consists mostly of mixed forest. Most of these soils have been cleared and are used as cropland. Some are used as pasture and some as forest.
In South Korea are areas adjacent to the DMZ are referred to as the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) where public access is restricted. Most of these areas are heavily farmed.
South Korean farmers see these area adjacent to the DMZ as valuable soil, frequently planting crops despite warnings to stay away, a typical example of how South Korea's population has encroached on once-rural training areas.
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
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For additional information about the soils of Korea, visit:
MSU researcher James Tiedje is leading the charge to determine the future direction of soil science research.
A Typic Haplosalid, aquic from coastal sabkha in the UAE.
This pedon has a water table at a depth of 100 to 200 cm and is identified as a "phase" in classification. In the UAE soil classification system, 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.
Typic Haplosalids are the Haplosalids that do not have a calcic, gypsic, or petrogypsic horizon or a duripan with an upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. Before 1994, these soils were identified as Torriorthents if a salic horizon was the only diagnostic horizon. In the United States, these soils occur in California.
Haplosalids are the Salids that have a high concentration of salts but do not have the saturation that is associated with the Aquisalids. Haplosalids may be saturated for shorter periods than Aquisalids, may have had a water table associated with a past climate, or a water table that occurs below 100 cm. In the Four Corners area of the United States, salic horizons have formed without the influence of a water table in saline parent materials.
Salids are most common in depressions (playas) in the deserts or in closed basins in the wetter areas bordering the deserts. In North Africa and in the Near East, such depressions are referred to as Sabkhas or Chotts, depending on the presence or absence of surface water for prolonged periods. Under the arid environment and hot temperatures, accumulation of salts commonly occurs when there is a supply of salts and a net upward movement of water in the soils. In some areas a salic horizon has formed in salty parent materials without the presence of ground water. The most common form of salt is sodium chloride (halite), but sulfates (thenardite, mirabilite, and hexahydrite) and other salts may also occur. The concept of Salids is one of accumulation of an excessive amount of salts that are more soluble than gypsum. This is implicit in the definition, which requires a minimum absolute EC of 30 dS/m in 1:1 extract (about 2 percent salt) and a product of EC and thickness of at least 900. As a rule, Salids are unsuitable for agricultural use, unless the salts are leached out. Leaching the salts is an expensive undertaking, particularly if there is no natural outlet for the drainage water. Two great groups are recognized—Aquisalids, which are saturated with water for 1 month or more during the year, and Haplosalids, which are drier.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
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The Australian Soil Classification is the classification system currently used to describe and classify soils in Australia. It is a general-purpose, hierarchical classification system, and consists of five categorical levels from the most general to the most specific: order, suborder, great group, subgroup, and family.
The Australian Soil Classification supersedes other classification systems previously developed for Australian soils, including the Factual Key and the Handbook of Australian Soils. The Australian Soil Classification was developed by Ray Isbell, a retired soil scientist with CSIRO, and first published in 1996.
At the top, most general, level of the Australian Soil Classification, there are Soil Orders: Anthroposols, Arenosols, Calcarosols, Chromosols, Dermosols, Ferrosols, Hydrosols, Kandosols, Kurosols, Organosols, Podosols, Rudosols, Sodosols, Tenosols and Vertosols. The character of many of the Soil Orders reflects the arid, strongly-weathered nature of the Australian continent.
For the Vertosol, Kurosol, Sodosol, Chromosol, Ferrosol, Dermosol and Kandosol orders, the suborder-level categories reflect the dominant colour of the upper part of the B horizon. There are five suborder colour categories, namely Red, Brown, Yellow, Grey and Black. The colour classes have the same names as, but are not directly equivalent to, those used in the Factual Key and estimated using a subset of the Munsell Colour System. The full suborder designation then becomes Red Kurosol, Grey Vertosol, for example.
The remaining soil orders have suborder categories that reflect unique characteristics of the given order. For example, the Hydrosol order is split into Intertidal Hydrosols, Supratidal Hydrosols, Extratidal Hydrosols, Hypersalic Hydrosols, Salic Hydrosols, Redoxic Hydrosols and Oxyaquic Hydrosols. On the other hand, the Rudosols are split into Hypergypsic Rudosols, Hypersalic Rudosols, Shelly Rudosols, Carbic Rudosols, Arenic Rudosols, Lutic Rudosols, Stratic Rudosols, Clastic Rudosols and Leptic Rudosols at the suborder level.
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Depth Class: Moderately deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very deep; Absent
Index Surface Runoff: Low to high
Permeability: Moderate
Landscape: Piedmont or Foothill
Landform: Hill
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, and backslope
Geomorphic Component: Interfluve, sideslope, and nose slope
Parent Material: Creep deposits over high-grade metamorphic rock residuum.
Slope: 6 to 60 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, subactive, thermic Typic Hapludults
Depth to the Base of the Argillic: 20 to 40 inches
Depth to Bedrock: 20 to 40 to soft bedrock and greater than 40 to hard bedrock
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: Greater than 72 inches
Content and size of rock fragments: 15 to 70 percent, by volume, in the A and 35 to 70 percent in the B and C horizons; mostly gravel, channers, cobbles, and stones from sillimanite schist, mica schist, or quartz mica gneiss
Soil Reaction: Very strongly to strongly acid, except where limed
Other Features: Most pedons have few to common flakes of mica
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Woodland and pasture
Dominant Vegetation: Hickory, dogwood, red oak, white oak and pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Piedmont of Georgia and possibly Alabama
Extent: Small
For a detailed description, visit:
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For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
Two naturalists buy a house in Seattle and in the process of making their garden are sent on a study of the microbiome. Their story begins when they are confounded by the glacial till they find on the first day of planting. The biologist wife throws her efforts into building up the soil with organic matter while her geologist husband, fascinated by the results of her efforts, researches the micro biome of plant life. Thus the reader is offered a history of soil science, agricultural technology and the relationship between microbial life in the soil and plant biology. Along the way we also learn how the early discoveries and understanding of microbiology (limited at the time to germ theory) impacted agricultural technology leading to the chemical revolution.
The approach to science in the industrialized capitalist countries had followed the competitive Darwinistic model. It was a woman biologist (Lynn Margulis) who later offered the controversial idea that cells developed as an act of collaboration i.e. one was ingested by another and they began working together and thus could do more and have more energy. This is how our cells came to have mitochondria. When many different cell types joined together and became a unionized entity as it were, entire new animals were formed. I was delighted to have science offer such a feminist contribution of collaboration (discovered by a woman naturally).
Details of photosynthesis and the chemical interchange between the plant roots and the microbes in the soil show how the soil microbes offer nutrients for the plants to take up while plants offer free food to the microbes through their roots—in the form of exudites (primal ooze if you will)—from the photosynthesis of carbon into sugars, amino acids and other offerings. The plant immune system is also strengthened by these symbiotic exchanges as the soil microbes create chemical reactions that make key nutrients available to plant roots. These are symbiotic relationships. There are also dis-symbiotic relationships which allow pathogens to take hold. Chemical inputs put a stop to plants taking up nutrients which has rendered our vegetables much less nutritious than in the past and weakened their immune systems thus making them vulnerable to disease and pests.
I was excited to learn of these symbiotic relationship since it supports the idea that nature is naturally organized to protect itself and that plants are alchemists rather than consumers. That health is about keeping up microbial activity rather than hunting down and killing pathogens with chemicals. This changed how I thought about gardening from a product centered endeavor to an ecologically centered one.
Midway through the book the biologist is diagnosed with a cancer. This event turns her attention to the microbiology of the human body and the immune system. Thus she discovers that much the same thing is going on within the body as is happening in the exchange between plant and soil. In the case of the body the micro organisms live in the "soil" of the colon. The colon offers protection to such beneficial microbes in foxholes along the length of the colon so they are not swept away by the onslaught of food slurries entering the digestive system. These microbes also assist our immune system by regulating inflammation—turning it up to kill pathogens and down to keep the inflammation from harming the body—thus preserving the living environment of the microbe in a symbiotic relationship benefiting both human and microbe.
Though I knew about beneficial bacteria this book was my introduction to the full story and the fairly recent discovery of the micro-biome. Microbes evolve very quickly changing how our body operates even though we might have the same DNA as our ancestors. This symbiosis prompts me to look again at the paradigm of nature vs nurture, DNA vs input. We have too long been blaming DNA alone for disease. And this porousness makes us look much more like sponges in the primordial soup of our environment—if sponges were sophisticated enough to mobilize.
Given that the colon is where its happening much attention is given to poop and I was fascinated to learn that the most effective treatment for diarrhea is to take the poop of a healthy person and introduce it to the patient either through an enema or in a freeze dried form by mouth via a capsule. This treatment is called a fecal microbiota transplant or FMT. Also works for colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. Our cultural fecophobia suppressed this information in favor of pharmaceuticals so we are only now working our way back to this treatment having been subjected for so long to the downside of antibiotics.
To encourage good microbial activity in the colon the authors begin eating more complex carbohydrates from their garden. Fruits and vegetables being the equivalent of mulching the soil. This fiber rich diet prescribes that our intake be half fruits and vegetable and less than half animal and vegetable protein with the rest being whole grains and very little in the way of simple carbohydrates like pastries. I found the evidence convincing enough to think about adding more vegetables to my diet.
The book brings home the point that our pathogen centric and germ centric approach to keeping healthy is primitive at best. We need to boost our beneficial micro biome to promote good symbiotic relationships. So all those years of making sure our environment and our skin was germ free has been largely counterproductive. I look forward to the disappearance of anti-bacteria cleaning products to be replaced by the practice of nurturing and befriending a diversity of bacteria in our personal ecology.
DSPs are indicators of soil function and soil change. Soil function describes what the soil does. DSPs are collected along with vegetation, management system and disturbance information.
Note the accumulation of iron (redox feature) and areas of reduction (gray color) from the lower subsoil of an Augusta soil.
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/AUGUSTA.html
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.
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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. (Base photo by Stephen Patton, UK agricultural communications.)
Landscape: upland
Landform: hillslope, interfluve, ridge and saddle
MLRA(s): 113, 114A, 115A, 120A, 120B, 120C, 124, and 126
Geomorphic component: hills
Hillslope Profile Position: summit, shoulders and backslopes
Parent Material: loess over residuum derived from sandstone, siltstone, and shale
Slope: 0 to 30 percent
Elevation: 110 to 415 meters (360 to 1360 feet)
Frost-free period: 147 to 214 days
Mean Annual Air Temperature: 11.5 to 14.9 degrees C. (52.7 to 58.9 degrees F)
Mean Annual Precipitation: 98.4 to 136.1 centimeters (38.7 to 53.6 inches)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs
Depth to the top of the Argillic: ranges from 7 to 28 centimeters (3 to 11 inches)
Depth to the top of the Fragipan: ranges from 60 to 99 centimeters (24 to 39 inches) except where eroded
Solum Thickness: ranges from 50 to 177 centimeters (20 to 70 inches).
Depth to bedrock: ranges from 100 to 203 centimeters (40 to 80 inches).
Depth Class: Deep and Very Deep
Reaction Class: moderately to very strongly acid, except where limed.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: row crop, pasture and woodland
Dominant Vegetation:
Where cultivated-- Corn, soybeans, wheat, tobacco.
Where wooded-- white oak, black oak, post oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, tulip poplar, dogwood, and sassafras.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
Extent: Extent is large.
For more information, visit:
news.ca.uky.edu/article/fragipan-field-day-shows-research...
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 Typic Torripsamment, petrogypsic from the interior of the UAE.
Torripsamments are the cool to hot Psamments of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Many of these soils are on stable surfaces, some are on dunes, some are stabilized, and some are moving. Torripsamments consist of quartz, mixed sands, volcanic glass, or even gypsum and may have any color. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are nearly level to steep. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs.
This pedon has a petrogypsic horizon at a depth of 100 to 200 cm (130 cm in this pedon) and is identified as a "phase" in classification. In the UAE soil classification system, 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 petrogypsic horizon is a horizon in which visible secondary gypsum has accumulated or has been transformed. The horizon is cemented (i.e., extremely weakly through indurated cementation classes), and the cementation is both laterally continuous and root limiting, even when the soil is moist. Th e horizon typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils.
Psamments are the sandy Entisols. They are sandy in all layers within the particle-size control section. Some formed in poorly graded (well sorted) sands on shifting or stabilized sand dunes, in cover sands, or in sandy parent materials that were sorted in an earlier geologic cycle. Some formed in sands that were sorted by water and are on outwash plains, lake plains, natural levees, or beaches. A few Psamments formed in material weathered from sandstone or granitic bedrock. Psamments occur under any climate, but they cannot have permafrost within 100 cm of the soil surface. They can have any vegetation and are on surfaces of virtually any age from recent historic to Pliocene or older. The Psamments on old stable surfaces commonly consist of quartz sand. Ground water typically is deeper than 50 cm and commonly is much deeper.
Psamments have a relatively low water-holding capacity. Those that are bare and become dry are subject to soil blowing and drifting and cannot easily support wheeled vehicles. Because very gravelly sands do not have the two qualities just described, they are excluded from Psamments and are grouped with Orthents. Thus, not all Entisols that have a sandy texture are Psamments.
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...
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Wetlands are areas that have hydrophytic vegetation, hydric soils, and wetland hydrology, as per the “National Food Security Act Manual” and the “1987 Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual” (Environmental Laboratory, 1987).
This photo illustrates a typical wetland landscape. The underlying soils have redoximorphic features formed by the processes of reduction, translocation, and/or oxidation of Fe and Mn oxides formerly called mottles and low-chroma colors.
Note the buttress roots at the base of the larger tree. This is the result of shallow rooting depth caused by a seasonal high water table at or near the surface for several months of the year.
These soils are in the Wehadkee soil series. 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 of the southeastern U.S. They are formed in loamy sediments. Slopes range from 0 to 2 percent. Near the type location, mean annual precipitation is about 48 inches, and mean annual temperature is about 60 degrees F.
Runoff is very slow and internal drainage is very slow. Permeability is moderate. Most areas are frequently flooded. 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.
A representative soil profile of Branyon clay. Slickensides begin at a depth of about 35 centimeters. They are a result of soil movement. (Soil Survey of Fayette County, Texas; by Dennis D. Ressel and Samuel E. Brown, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation
Service)
The Branyon series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, very slowly permeable soils that formed in calcareous clayey alluvium derived from mudstone of Pleistocene age. These nearly level to very gently sloping soils occur on treads of stream terraces on river valleys. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 903 mm (35.6 in) and the mean annual air temperature is about 19.9 degrees C (67.9 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Udic Haplusterts
Solum depth: greater than 203 cm (80 in)
Soil moisture: An ustic soil moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for more than 90 days but less than 150 cumulative days in normal years.
Depth to slickensides: 13 to 81 cm (5 to 32 in)
Depth to cambic horizon: 10 to 61 cm (4 to 24 in)
Depth to secondary calcium carbonates: 0 to 147 cm (0 to 58 in)
Depth to calcic horizon: 160 to 163 cm (63 to 64 in)
Depth to redox concentrations: 0 to 188 cm (0 to 74 in)
Iron-manganese concentrations: amount-0 to 1 percent, size-fine, kind-concretions
Vertic features: When dry, cracks 2.5 to 8 cm (1 to 3 in) wide extend from the surface to depths of 51 cm (20 in) or more. Cracks remain open for 90 to 150 days in most years.
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all is cropped to cotton, sorghums, corn, oats, and wheat. Native vegetation consists of little and big bluestems, indiangrass, switchgrass, sideoats grama, with scattered elm, bois'd'arc, and hackberry trees. Mesquite is an invader in most areas.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Land Resource Region J - Southwestern Prairies Cotton and Forage Region. Central Texas. Texas Blackland Prairies (MLRAs 86 A and 86B). The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX149/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BRANYON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Arol fine sandy loam. The subsoil is very dense, and it is underlain by weakly cemented
tuffaceous material at a depth of about 90 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Fayette County, Texas; by Dennis D. Ressel and Samuel E. Brown, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Arol series consists of moderately deep, moderately well drained soils that formed in clayey residuum weathered from tuffaceous sandstone and siltstone of the Catahoula formation of Miocene age. These nearly level to gently sloping soils are on broad, upland ridges. Slope ranges from 0 to 5 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 889 to 1232 mm (35 to 49 in) and the mean annual air temperature is about 18.4 to 21.1 degrees C (65 to 70 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, thermic Udic Paleustalfs
Note: These soils do not have an aquic moisture regime. Classification change from Typic Albaqualfs is due to interpretation that the low chroma matrix is due to organic matter accumulations in conjunction with gray colored parent material. Field observations, water table studies from Texas A&M University, landscape position and climate indicate the soil is typically not saturated long enough to be reduced in most years. Arol soils were formerly included in the Wilson series.
Depth of solum: 61 to 94 cm (24 to 37 in), moderately deep
Depth to argillic horizon: 13 to 20 cm (5 to 8 in)
Depth to abrupt textural change: 13 to 20 cm (5 to 8 in)
Depth to redoximorphic features: 13 to 46 cm (5 to 18 in)
Depth to paralithic material: 61 to 94 cm (24 to 37 in)
Depth to paralithic contact: 61 to 94 cm (20 to 40 in)
Rock fragments: Less than 5 percent (by volume) sandstone gravels
Coefficient of Linear Extensibility (COLE):May exceed 0.07 in the Bt subhorizons of some pedons, but the potential linear extensibility is less than 6 cm (2.4 in)
Particle size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 35 to 45 percent in particle size control section
Rock fragments: Less than 5 percent (by volume) sandstone gravels
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly as pastureland. Large acreages were once planted to cotton and corn, but are now idle or in low quality pastures of threeawn grasses and annuals. Improved pastures are mainly coastal bermudagrass. Native grasses are little bluestem, indiangrass, switchgrass, big bluestem, and sideoats grama with scattered post oak trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Land Resource Region J - Southwestern Prairies Cotton and Forage Region. Southeastern Claypan area of Texas (MLRA 87A). The series is moderately extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX149/0/...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/AROL.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
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Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/category/public_domain
In 1900, when the Miami soil series was established, soil units were differentiated by surface texture alone. In 1904, the Miami Series was called one of the “four or five great series of uniform characteristics” in the Ohio and Mississippi River basins. The Miami soils have been studied in detail. In 1986, the Indiana Association of Professional Soil Scientists (IAPSC) voted to designate Miami as their state soil.
The less sloping Miami soils are used mainly for growing corn, soybeans, or winter wheat and are well suited to these crops. The steeper areas are used as pasture, hayland, or forestland. This productive cropland, hayland and pasture also supports extensive livestock production. A significant acreage has been converted to residential and commercial uses.
Miami soils have a limiting layer of dense till at a depth of 24 to 40 inches. The permeability of this dense till is slow or very slow, so the design and construction of any engineering structure or sanitary facility on this soil must take this feature into account. Miami soils also have a perched seasonal high water table at a depth of 2 to 3 feet between December and April in normal years, which may require drainage practices for some uses. The sloping areas of the Miami soils are subject to erosion and should be kept under vegetative cover to prevent degradation.
For more information about this and other State Soils, visit the Soil Science Society of America "Around the World-State Soils" website.
A representative soil profile and landscape of the Pomello soil series from the 2014 Florida FFA Land Judging Contest. (Photos courtesy of L. Rex Ellis, Environmental Scientist V, Bureau of Water Resources, Division of Water and Land Resources, St. Johns River Water Management District). For more information about the site, visit: landjudging.org/contests/2014/field3/
The Pomello series consists of very deep, moderately well to somewhat poorly drained soils that formed in sandy marine sediments. Pomello soils are on ridges, hills, and knolls in the flatwoods on marine terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 5 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 1397 millimeters (55 inches) and mean annual temperature is about 23 degrees C (72 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, siliceous, hyperthermic Oxyaquic Alorthods
USE AND VEGETATION:
Under natural conditions Pomello soils are used for forest and range production, wildlife habitat, and recreation, some areas are used for pasture and urban development. Potential native vegetation consists of scrub oak, dwarf live oak, sawpalmetto, longleaf pine, slash pine, and pine land threeawn.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): South Florida Flatwoods (MLRA 155), Southern Florida Lowlands (MLRA 156B), and South-Central Florida Ridge (MLRA 154)
Extent: Large
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/POMELLO.html
For acreage, geographic distribution and pedons sampled, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#pomello
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:
An Anhydritic Aquisalid and landscape (Coastal Sabkha) in the UAE. (Classification by UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy)
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
Anhydritic Aquisalids are the Aquisalids that have an anhydritic horizon (Bkzaa layer) with its upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. The anhydritic hprizon has soil layers or horizons that have any particle-size class and 15 percent or more (by weight) anhydrite, either in the fine-earth fraction or in the fraction less than 20 mm in size, whichever has a higher percentage of anhydrite.
Anhydrite is a mineral—anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. Distinctly developed crystals are somewhat rare, the mineral usually presenting the form of cleavage masses. The hardness is 3.5 and the specific gravity 2.9. The color is white, sometimes greyish, bluish, or purple. When exposed to water, anhydrite readily transforms to the more commonly occurring gypsum, (CaSO4·2H2O) by the absorption of water. This transformation is reversible, with gypsum or calcium sulfate hemihydrate forming anhydrite by heating to ~200°C under normal atmospheric conditions. Anhydrite is commonly associated with calcite and halite.
Aquisalids are the Salids that are saturated with water in one or more layers within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface for 1 month or more in normal years. These salty soils are in wet areas in the deserts where capillary rise and evaporation of water concentrate the salts near the surface. Some of these soils have redoximorphic depletions and concentrations. In other soils redoximorphic features may not be evident because of a high pH and the associated low redox potential, which inhibit iron and manganese reduction. These soils occur dominantly in depressional areas where ground water saturates the soils at least part of the year. The vegetation on these soils generally is sparse, consisting of salt-tolerant shrubs, grasses, and forbs. Although these soils may hold water at a tension less than 1500 kPa, the dissolved salt content makes the soils physiologically dry.
Salids are the Aridisols soils with an excessive amount of salts that are more soluble than gypsum. This is implicit in the definition, which requires a minimum absolute EC of 30 dS/m in 1:1 extract (about 2 percent salt) and a product of EC and thickness of at least 900. As a rule, Salids are unsuitable for agricultural use, unless the salts are leached out. Leaching the salts is an expensive undertaking, particularly if there is no natural outlet for the drainage water.
Aridisols, as their name implies, are soils in which water is not available to mesophytic plants for long periods. During most of the time when the soils are warm enough for plants to grow, soil water is held at potentials less than the permanent wilting point or has a content of soluble salts great enough to limit the growth of plants other than halophytes, or both. The concept of Aridisols is based on limited soil moisture available for the growth of most plants. In areas bordering deserts, the absolute precipitation may be sufficient for the growth of some plants. Because of runoff or a very low storage capacity of the soils, or both, however, the actual soil moisture regime is aridic.
Sabkha is a term typically used by Earth scientists, a sabkha (Arabic: سبخة) is a coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coastal plains just above normal high-tide level. Within a sabkha, evaporite-saline minerals sediments typically accumulate below the surface of mudflats or sandflats. Evaporite-saline minerals, tidal-flood, and aeolian deposits characterize many sabkhas found along modern coastlines. The accepted type locality for a sabkha is at the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, in the United Arab Emirates. Sabkha is a phonetic translation of the Arabic word used to describe any form of salt flat. A sabkha is also known as a sabkhah, sebkha, or coastal sabkha. The term sabkha has also been used as a general term for any flat area, coastal or interior, where, as the result of evaporation, salt and other evaporite minerals precipitate near or at the surface. The term continental sabkha is used for such environments found within deserts. Because of the confusion created by using sabkha for salt flats and playas, it has been proposed that the usage of this term be abandoned for playas and other intracontinental basins and flats.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
The Tifton series was one of the first series to be recognized in Georgia. It was established in Grady County, Georgia, in a 1908 soil survey conducted by Hugh Hammond Bennett.
Tifton soils occur throughout the Southern Coastal Plain in the Southeastern U.S. They are the most extensive soils in Georgia. They occur on more than 2 million acres in the State. They have been correlated in more Georgia counties (56) than any other soil. Tifton soils formed in loamy sediments of marine origin. They are among the most important agricultural soils in the State. About 27 percent of Georgia’s prime farmland is in areas of Tifton soils. Cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and corn are the principal crops grown on these soils.
The Tifton series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in loamy marine sediments. Tifton soils are on interfluves. Slopes range from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 18 degrees C (64 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 with 5 percent or more plinthite is dominantly 76 to 127 centimeters (30 to 50 inches), but in some pedons it is 63 centimeters (25 inches).
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).
Ac or Apc horizons:
Hue: 10YR or 2.5Y; Value: 3 to 5; Chroma: 1 to 4
Texture: sand, fine sand, loamy fine sand, loamy sand, loamy coarse sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or their gravelly analogues
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 5 to 25 percent, by volume
Btv horizon (upper part):
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR; Value: 5 or 6; Chroma: 4 to 8
Texture: Texture is dominantly sandy clay loam but can range up to sandy clay or their gravelly analogues.
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 0 to 15 percent, by volume. Nodular plinthite ranges from 5 to 30 percent.
Redox features: Masses of oxidized iron in shades of red and brown range from few to many. Some pedons have iron depletions below a depth of 76 centimeters (30 inches).
USE AND VEGETATION:
Most areas of Tifton soils are under cultivation with cotton, corn, peanuts, vegetable crops, and small grains. Some areas are in pasture and forestland. The forested areas consist largely of longleaf pine, loblolly pine, slash pine with some scattered hardwoods on cutover areas.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Major Land Resource Area (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 a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TIFTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#tifton
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...
A representative soil profile of the Woodbridge series. Note the vertical desiccation crack on the right--a dead root channel is in the crack which is gray (redox depletion, surrounded by a redox concentration). The estimated seasonal high water table for this soil is approximately 50 cm below the surface. (Photo and comment by Jim Turenne. Portsmouth, RI, New England Soil Profiles)
The Woodbridge series consists of moderately well drained loamy soils formed in lodgment till. They are very deep to bedrock and moderately deep to a densic contact. They are nearly level to moderately steep soils on hills, drumlins, till plains, and ground moraines. Slope ranges from 0 to 25 percent. Saturated hydraulic conductivity ranges from moderately high to high in the surface layer and subsoil and low or moderately low in the dense substratum. Mean annual temperature is about 9 degrees C., and mean annual precipitation is about 1168 mm.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
The thickness of the solum and depth to densic materials is 50 to 100 cm. Depth to bedrock is commonly more than 2 meters. Rock fragments commonly range from 0 to 35 percent. Except where the surface is stony, the fragments are mostly subrounded gravel and typically make up 60 percent or more of the total rock fragments. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strongly acid to slightly acid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops, hay, or pasture. Scattered areas are used for community development. Some areas are wooded. Common trees are red, white, and black oak, hickory, white ash, sugar maple, red maple, eastern hemlock, and eastern white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, eastern New York, and Rhode Island. MLRAs 144A, 145, and 149B. The series is of large extent, over 600,000 acres.
For additional information about New England soils, visit:
nesoil.com/images/woodbridge.htm
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WOODBRIDGE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Holdrege soil series was first described as separate from surrounding soils in 1917 in Phelps County, NE and named for the nearby community of Holdrege. It was selected by the state legislature in 1979 to represent the soil resources of the state as the Official State Soil. Agriculture and soil are very important aspects of Nebraska’s economy.
The south-central region of the state, where Holdrege soils are common, has the greatest concentration of high yielding irrigated corn production in Nebraska. Nebraska ranks third in the U.S. production of corn grain, and Holdrege is one of the many soils that is very productive because of its high natural fertility and high water storage capacity. Holdrege soils are also well suited to other crops including wheat, soybean, sorghum, and alfalfa. Some areas are also used as pasture and rangelands for cattle production.
For more information about this and other State Soils, visit the Soil Science Society of America "Around the World-State Soils" website.
The Umm Al Quwain series formed in loamy and sandy marine deposits. It is shallow or moderately deep to a water table. (UAE (NE025).
Taxonomic classification: Gypsic Aquisalids, coarse-loamy, carbonatic, hyperthermic
Diagnostic subsurface horizons described in this profile are: Gypsic horizon, 0 to 35 cm, and Salic horizon 5 to 70 cm. This soil would be classified with a fine-gypseous over loamy strongly contrasting particle-size class, but it is not currently provided for in Soil Taxonomy. It is therefore placed in the coarse-loamy particle-size class. Also note that because gypsum crystals and shell fragments greater than 2 mm in size are easily broken down during the crushing and sieving process in the laboratory, the amount of coarse gypsum crystals and shell fragments that were observed in the field is not reflected in the coarse fraction sieve analysis on the data sheet. Also, the highly calcareous 2Bkzg1 and 2Bkzg2 layers do not meet the concept of a calcic horizon. The carbonates present are indicative of the marine deposited parent material. Secondary carbonates were not observed in this soil and they would not be expected to readily accumulate in this continually wet or saturated material.
The pH (1:1) ranges from 7.0 to 8.4 throughout the profile. The EC (1:1) ranges from 15.0 to 62.0 dS/m throughout. Depth to the water table ranges from 15 to 90 cm. Fragments of seashells range from 0 to 30% throughout. ESP and SAR are greater than 15 and 13 respectively throughout the subsoil.
The A horizon ranges from 5 to 20 cm thick. It has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 or 7, and chroma of 1 to 3. It is coarse gypsum material, fine gypsum material; or gypsiferous fine sand, loamy fine sand, or loamy sand. Gypsum content is generally in the form of fine to coarse crystals and ranges from 15 to 80%.
The B horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 5 to 8, and chroma of 1 to 3. Redoximorphic features in the form of masses of oxidized iron are present. Texture is very fine sandy loam or loam; including channery texture modifiers. Individual layers of loamy fine sand or sand are also included, but they make up less than half of the particle-size control section. Some pedons have silty clay loam or clay loam below 100 cm. Gypsum content is generally less than 5% below depths of about 50 cm.
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This soil is on flood plains and on terraces along wadis in mountain valleys. This soil is excessively drained. Estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity class for the surface layer is very high.
This soil is mostly used for rangeland grazing for goats and camels. Small mountain villages are also located on this soil. Due to the presence of water aquifers, some areas are used for growing date palms or other crops, although the soil in these areas has been replaced with less stony material. Commonly described vegetation species include Acacia tortilis,Tephrosia apollinea, Euphorbia larica, and Rhazya stricta. Vegetation cover is about 1 to 8%. This soil is in mountain valleys.
The main distinguishing feature of this soil is the extremely coarse particle-size class. Because the soil is dominated by gravel, cobbles and stones; and the fine-earth fraction makes up less than 10% of the soil volume; it has very low water and nutrient holding capacity. It is nearly impossible to dig by hand, so even small excavations require power equipment. Soil strength is high due to the coarse nature of the soil and it can provide a good surface for building sites and roads, although the large size of the rock fragments can present difficulties for construction projects