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Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Chewacla soil.
Landscape: Corn growing in an area of Chewacla loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently flooded. Flood plain soils, like the Chewacla soil, are highly productive for many crops but are subject to frequent flooding during the rainy season. (Soil Survey of Monroe County, Georgia; by Dee C. Pederson and Sherry E. Carlson, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
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Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Somewhat poorly drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very shallow to moderately deep, common
Flooding Frequency and Duration: Frequent to rare for very brief to long periods
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: Negligible to low
Permeability: Moderate
Landscape: Piedmont and Coastal Plain river valleys
Landform: Flood plains
Parent Material: Alluvium
Slope: 0 to 2 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, thermic Fluvaquentic Dystrudepts
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to Seasonal High Water Table: 6 to 24 inches, November to April
Rock Fragment content: Less than 5 percent, by volume, in the A and upper B horizons. In some pedons, gravel content ranges to 15 percent by volume in the lower B horizons.
Soil Reaction: Very strongly acid to slightly acid to a depth of 40 inches, very strongly acid to mildly alkaline below 40 inches, except where limed
Other Features: Few to many mica flakes throughout and none to common
concretions
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Pasture, cropland, some forest
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--corn, small grain. Where wooded--yellow poplar, sweetgum, water oak, eastern cottonwood, green ash, blackgum, red maple, willow oak, and American sycamore. Loblolly pines are in some areas that are not subject to frequent flooding. Common understory plants include river birch, winged elm, hackberry, greenbrier, American holly, black willow, sourwood, eastern and hophornbeam.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Extent: Large
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CHEWACLA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Cliffield series consists of strongly sloping to very steep, moderately deep, well drained soils. (Soil Survey of Polk County, North Carolina; by Scott C. Kennan, Natural Resources Service)
They are on narrow ridge crests and side slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains. They formed in residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper part, and are weathered from high-grade metamorphic rocks such as sillimanite schist, garnet-mica schist, and quartz-mica schist. Mean annual temperature is about 54 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation is about 64 inches near the type location. Slope ranges from 8 to 95 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, subactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to a lithic contact and fractured hard bedrock range from 20 to 40 inches. Bedrock fractures decrease with depth. Rock fragment content ranges from 15 to 70 percent by volume throughout and averages more than 35 percent by volume in the Bt horizon. Fragments are dominantly gravel, cobbles, or stones, with occasional boulders. Reaction is extremely acid to strongly acid. Content of flakes of mica ranges from few to common.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are forested with chestnut oak, scarlet oak, red maple, black locust, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, pitch pine, white oak, black oak, northern red oak, and hickory. Common understory plants are sassafras, sourwood, flowering dogwood, mountain laurel, blueberry, flame azalea, pinxter-flower, blackgum, and galax. A small acreage is in homesites and orchards.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North Carolina, and possibly Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. The series is of moderate extent.
Cliffield soils were formerly included in the Talledega series. However, Talledega soils have discontinuous argillic horizons and are underlain at depths of 10 to 40 inches by lower grade metamorphic rock such as phyllite, slate, and argillite.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/north_carolina...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CLIFFIELD.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A soil profile of Meth fine sandy loam, 1 to 5 percent slopes. Meth soils have a fine sandy loam surface layer over clayey subsoil. The red colors are because of the presence of iron. (Soil Survey of San Augustine and Sabine Counties, Texas; by Kirby Griffith, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Meth series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in thick loamy and clayey sediments on Tertiary age uplands. These soils are on broad sloping coastal plains. Water runs off the surface at a medium rate. Slope is dominantly 1 to 12 but ranges up to 20 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic Ultic Hapludalfs
Solum thickness ranges from 60 to 80 inches. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly acid in the A and E horizons and from very strongly acid to moderately acid in the B horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Meth soils are used mainly for woodland; vegetation is typically shortleaf and loblolly pines, red oak, sweetgum, and other hardwood trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern coastal plain of Northwestern Louisiana and eastern Texas and possibly Arkansas and Oklahoma. The known extent is small.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/sanaugus...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/METH.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Vaucluse soils have a Bt horizon more than 6 inches thick that is compact, dense, and brittle in 30 to 60 percent of the mass. The brittleness is thought to be due to masses of oxidized iron. This horizon commonly has weak or moderate, medium or coarse subangular blocky structure but in some pedons it appears to be massive. It contains fine roots but medium and coarse roots are not usually present in the brittle part. Since establishment, the series has been classified as: Typic Hapludults, Fragic Paleudults, Typic Fragiudults, Typic Kanhapludults, and (2005) Fragic Kanhapludults. Further study of the soil is needed to accurately determine the dominant diagnostic characteristics.
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/53407832443/in/dateposted-...
MLRA(s): 133A-Southern Coastal Plain, 137-Carolina and Georgia Sand Hills
Depth Class: Very deep
Drainage Class (Agricultural): Well drained
Internal Free Water Occurrence: Very deep
Flooding Frequency and Duration: None
Ponding Frequency and Duration: None
Index Surface Runoff: High, very high
Permeability: Moderately slow, slow (Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: Moderately high, moderately low
Shrink-swell Potential: Low
Landscape: Middle or upper coastal plain
Landform: Marine terraces, uplands
Geomorphic Component: Interfluves, side slopes
Hillslope Profile Position: Summits, shoulders, back slopes
Parent Material: Fluviomarine deposits, marine deposits
Slope: 2 to 25 percent, mostly 6 to 15 percent
Elevation (type location): Unknown
Frost Free Period (type location): 240 days
Mean Annual Air Temperature (type location): 62 degrees F.
Mean Annual Precipitation (type location): 45 inches
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Fragic Kanhapludults
Thickness of the sandy surface and subsurface layers: 4 to 19 inches
Depth to top of the Argillic horizon: 4 to 19 inches
Depth to the base of the Argillic horizon: 40 to 75 inches
Depth to top of the Kandic horizon: 4 to 19 inches
Depth to fragic soil properties: 15 to 35 inches
Fragic soil properties content: 30 to 60 percent, by volume in the Btx horizon
Depth to densic materials: More than 40 inches
Depth to lithologic discontinuity (contrasting sand sizes or abrupt textural change): 40 inches or more
Soil reaction: Extremely acid to strongly acid throughout, unless limed
Depth to bedrock: Greater than 80 inches
Depth to seasonal high water table: Greater than 72 inches
Rock fragment content: 0 to 60 percent in the A and E horizons and 0 to 15 percent in the B and C horizons; mostly quartz or ironstone pebbles
Other features--0 to 10 percent, by volume, fine to coarse pockets or irregularly shaped masses of white or light gray kaolin clay
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Forest, cropland
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--corn, cotton, small grain, soybeans, or pasture. Where wooded--loblolly and longleaf pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina
Extent: Large
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/V/VAUCLUSE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
This soil meets the depth criterion of A2 and the color and depth criteria of A3. The black color, a requirement of A3, results from the accumulation of organic matter when the soil is saturated and anaerobic.
A2.—Histic Epipedon. These soils have a histic epipedon underlain by mineral soil material with chroma of 2 or less.
User Notes: Most histic epipedons are surface horizons 20 cm (8 inches) or more thick of organic soil material. Aquic conditions or artificial drainage is required. See Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 1999) for a complete definition.
A3.—Black Histic. These soils have a layer of peat, mucky peat, or muck 20 cm (8 inches) or more thick that starts at a depth of ≤15 cm (6 inches) from the soil surface; has hue of 10YR or yellower, value of 3 or less, and chroma of 1 or less; and is underlain by mineral soil material with chroma of 2 or less.
User Notes: Unlike indicator A2, this indicator does not require proof of aquic conditions or artificial drainage (fig. 8).
Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States; A Guide for Identifying and Delineating Hydric Soils, Version 9.0, 2024.
In the Coastal Plain region of the southeastern US, a few spotty areas have soils that formed in iron-rich, loamy to clayey, marine sediments containing thin continuous iron cemented layers. These layers may qualify as petroferric contacts, but taxonomically, petroferric subgroups have not been recognized in the U.S., but have been acknowledged at the series level in a fine family. The Darley soil series is an example:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DARLEY.html
These taxa are common in the uplands of Africa, the central part of Indonesia, and many other areas (i.e., a Petroferric Kandiudox). To date these soils have been observed in Louisiana. Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They are estimated to occur throughout the Coastal Plain of the southeastern US.
According to USDA-Soil Taxonomy, a petroferric (Gr. petra, rock, and L. ferrum, iron; implying ironstone) contact is a boundary between soil and a continuous layer of indurated material in which iron is an important cement and organic matter is either absent or present only in traces. The indurated layer must be continuous within the limits of each pedon, but it may be fractured if the average lateral distance between fractures is 10 cm or more. The fact that this layer contains little or no organic matter distinguishes it from a placic horizon and an indurated spodic horizon (ortstein), both of which contain organic matter.
If formed by pedogenic processes in association with plinthite, these layers are commonly referred to as petroplinthite, whereas ironstone is more commonly associated with geologic processes.
According to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (FAO and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations 2006), a petroplinthic horizon (from the Greek words petros, meaning rock and plinthos, meaning brick) is a continuous, fractured or broken layer of indurated material in which Fe (and in some cases Mn) acts as cement and in which organic matter is either absent or only present in traces.
Using GPR to Characterize Plinthite and Ironstone Layers in Ultisols. Available from: www.researchgate.net/publication/282805887_Using_GPR_to_C... [accessed Dec 09 2020].
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
The Downer soil series is the New Jersey State Soil. In 1955, G. A. Quackenbush of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station was the first to use the name Downer to represent some yellowish, sandy and somewhat droughty soils of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. However, it was first established as a soil series in 1960 in Gloucester County, in the southern part of the State.
Downer soils are found in woodlands (forest) and many of the Garden State’s vegetables and crops are grown on Downer soil. Common tree species consist of mixed oaks of chestnut, blackjack, white, black, scarlet and post oaks, hickory, and scattered pines such as pitch pines, shortleaf pines, and Virginia pines. Blueberry and bracken fern provide the bush or shrub layer under the trees. These forests are home to white-tailed deer, opossum, mushrooms, lichens and much more. It is also important for putting “garden” in New Jersey’s nickname, the “Garden State.” About 40% of the soil is used for cultivation of high-value vegetable and fruit crops such as peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, apples, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. Hay, pasture, nursery stock and sod production when irrigated, are also grown on this soil. In addition, some of the soil has been used for sand mining and some towns are settled on Downer soil.
For more information about this and other State Soils, visit the Soil Science Society of America "Around the World-State Soils" website.
A Pachi-Ustic Isohumosol and landscape. These soils refer to a group of Ustic Isohumosols that have a mollic epipedon with a thickness at least 50cm. Topographically, their distributing areas are mainly low mountains, hills as well as high and low plains. Parent materials are diversified residual and slope deposits derived from granite, basalt, sandy mudstone and tertiary red clay, diluvial-alluvial deposits, loess as well as loess-like or sandy sediments. With a semi-humid to semi-arid climate, those areas have an annual precipitation 300-450mm. Vegetation is meadow composed of Sanguisorba officinalis, Vica venosa, and diversified grasses , as well as meadow-steppe composed of Aneurolepidum chinensis and diversified grasses. Calcium carbonate was leached to deeper parts of the profile. (Photos and notes courtesy of China Soils Museum, Guangdong Institute of World Soil Resources; with revision.)
In Chinese Soil Taxonomy, Isohumosols have deep accumulation of humus under cool temperature. In Soil Taxonomy these soils are Mollisols.
For additional information about this soil and the Soils Museum, visit:
www.giwsr.com/en/article/index/214
For additional information about Soil Taxonomy, visit:
This photo accompanies Figure 17.—Indicator A12, Thick Dark Surface. [Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States].
A close-up of the upper B horizon of a Tonka soil (vertical cross-section, broken along ped face). Note the many soft masses of oxidized iron and redox depletions. Masses of iron are mostly in ped interiors. The redox depletions are along root channels and elongated pores.
This soil is hydric based on Indicator A12 (Thick Dark Surface). Deep observation is needed to determine whether a soil meets the requirements of this indicator. In this soil, depth to the depleted matrix is about 55 cm.
Pungo soils (a hydric soil) consist of very deep, very poorly drained, slowly permeable soils. They formed in the remains of vegetation dominated by tupelo, cypress, Atlantic white-cedar, and related non-woody fibrous hydrophytic plants over loamy and clayey marine sediments on slopes of 0 to 2 percent.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Dysic, thermic Typic Haplosaprists
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Mostly woodland
Dominant Vegetation: Some areas are vegetated with scattered pond pine (Pinus serotina) and a dense undergrowth of large holly and small gallberry (Ilex spp.) and huckleberry (Gavlussacia spp.), greenbrier (Smilax spp.), southern bayberry (Myrica cerifera), scattered maple (Acer spp.), red bay (Persea borbonia), sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia Virginiana), and switch cane (Arundinaria tecta). Areas with a history of severe burning usually have a smaller population of these species and contain large amounts of broomsedge (Andropogon spp.) and other grasses and briers. These soils also support mixed hardwood forests dominated by tupelo (Nyssa spp.), baldcypress (Taxodium distichum), Atlantic white-cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), and other hydrophytic species
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Lower Coastal Plain of North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Virginia
Extent: Small
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/P/PUNGO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a fine, mixed, semiactive isohyperthermic Udic Paleustoll. (Photo and comments courtesy of Stan Buol, NCSU.)
This profile was photographed in Zambia, Africa. The soil is formed in limestone derived sediment on a nearly level slope. The site has been used as cropland for many years and there is no record of natural vegetation.
The surface Ap horizon (0-18 cm) is clay loam in texture below which clay content increases to between 50 and 60 percent to a depth of 180 cm. Organic carbon content exceeds 1 percent from the surface to a depth of 70 cm. Base saturation percentage (CEC7) exceeds 60 percent throughout the entire profile.
The main crops grown are maize, sorghum, soybeans, beans, cotton and sunflowers. The clay loam Ap horizon presents some difficulty for hand hoe cultivation but mechanized cultivation prepares better seed bed tilth.
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Udic Paleustolls are more moist than Typic Paleustolls and generally have carbonates at a greater depth. Slopes of the Udic Paleustolls in the United States are mostly gentle. The soils are of moderate extent, mostly on the southern Great Plains of the United States. Most of the soils supported grasses and shrubs and are used as cropland.
Paleustolls are the Ustolls on old stable surfaces. They may commonly have a thick, reddish argillic horizon, or, more commonly, a clayey argillic horizon that has an abrupt upper boundary, or they may have a petrocalcic horizon. They commonly have been partly or completely calcified during the Holocene, and a Bk or calcic horizon is common in the argillic horizon. The Paleustolls in the United States are mainly in the central and southern parts of the Great Plains. At the time of settlement, they had mostly grass vegetation. Their history during the Pleistocene has had little study. The petrocalcic horizon, where it occurs, may be complex, suggesting a number of alternating cycles of humidity and aridity and slow accretion of dust and sediment from the arid regions to the west.
Ustolls are the more or less freely drained Mollisols of subhumid to semiarid climates. Rainfall occurs mainly during a growing season, often in heavy showers, but is erratic. Drought is frequent and may be severe. During a drought, soil blowing becomes a problem. Without irrigation, the low supply of moisture usually limits crop yields. Ustolls are extensive soils on the western Great Plains in the United States.
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:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Warnock series. (Soil Survey of Union County, Arkansas; by Leodis Williams, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Warnock fine sandy loam, 1 to 7 percent slopes. This soil can be used as pasture, hayland, or forestland.
The Warnock series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in loamy marine sediments. These soils are on uplands of the Western Coastal Plain. Slopes range from 1 to 8 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 65 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is about 50 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, semiactive, thermic Typic Paleudults
Solum thickness exceeds 60 inches. Soil reaction ranges from strongly acid to extremely acid throughout, except for surfaces layers that have been limed. Fine rounded quartz pebbles range from one to about 10 percent by volume in all horizons. Base saturation at 50 inches below the top of the Bt horizon ranges from 10 to 30 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Warnock soils are used for woodland; mainly, loblolly and shortleaf pine. Cleared areas are used mostly for bermudagrass and bahiagrass pasture. Some cleared areas are used for soybeans and cotton.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Western Coastal Plain of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, and possibly the Southern Coastal Plain of Alabama and Mississippi. The series is of large extent. These soils were formerly included in the Norfolk series.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arkansas/AR139...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WARNOCK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Knolle fine sand. The sandy clay loam subsoil has prismatic structure and decreases in clay content with depth. (Soil Survey of Fayette County, Texas; by Dennis D. Ressel and Samuel E. Brown, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Knolle series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils that have formed in thick beds of sandy and loamy material weathered from sandstone. These soils are on gently to moderately sloping convex ridges. Slope is dominantly 2 to 5 percent but ranges from 1 to 8 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, siliceous, superactive, thermic Ultic Haplustalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for improved pasture. Very few areas support woody vegetation. Native grasses were mainly little bluestem, indiangrass, sideoats grama, and annual grasses, with some pricklypear and bullnettle.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeast central Texas. The series is of small 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/K/KNOLLE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A Mollic, Calic Vertisol (Humic, Eutric) formed in loess from Hungary. (Photo provided by Dr. rer. nat. Ulrich Schuler; ulrichschuler.net/index.html )
For more information about this site, visit;
ulrichschuler.net/excursions_hungary.html
Vertisols are heavy clay soils with a high proportion of swelling clays. These soils form deep wide cracks from the surface downward when they dry out, which happens in most years. The name Vertisols (from Latin vertere, to turn) refers to the constant internal turnover (churning) of soil material. Common local names for Vertisols are Black cotton soils and Regur (India), Black turf soils (South Africa) or Margalites (Indonesia). In national soil classification systems they are called Slitozems or Dark vertic soils (Russia), Vertosols (Australia), Vertissolos (Brazil) and Vertisols (United States of America
Vertisols cover 335 million ha worldwide. Most Vertisols occur in the semi-arid tropics with an average annual rainfall of 500–1 000 mm, but Vertisols are also found in the wet tropics, e.g. Trinidad (where annual rainfall amounts to 3 000 mm). The largest Vertisol areas are in Australia, India and South Sudan. They are also prominent in Ethiopia, China, southern United States of America (Texas), Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and South Africa. Vertisols are commonly associated with sediments that have a high content of smectitic clays or that produce such clays upon post-depositional weathering (e.g. in South Sudan and Australia) and on extensive basalt plateaus (e.g. in India and Ethiopia). Vertisols are often found in lower landscape positions such as dry lake bottoms, river basins, lower river terraces, and other lowlands that are periodically wet in their natural state. Small areas of Vertisols occur in southern European Russia and in Hungary.
For more information about the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit;
The soil survey of the Northern Emirates (Fujairah, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Ajman), United Arab Emirates (UAE) was conducted during 2010 – 2012. The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) implemented the Soil Survey through GRM International. The project was funded by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, and its objective was to develop a digital soil information repository to aid in broad land-use planning and agricultural expansion in the Northern Emirates.
The survey used Geographic Information Systems, satellite image processing, and field mapping to produce a Soil Information System. Scientific and technical standards, including the soil classification system and nomenclature, were based on those of the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. These standards have been used in other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, State of Kuwait, State of Qatar, and more recently in the Abu Dhabi soil survey project in the UAE. The project was completed at scale of 1:50,000.
A number of thematic maps, including suitability for irrigated agriculture, salinity, and current land use, were generated as part of the project. The Abu Dhabi Soils Information System (ADSIS) was expanded and enhanced and renamed to United Arab Emirates Soils Information System (UAESIS), to assist in the storage, processing, retrieval, and management of the national soil-related information.
Information from the soil survey is expected to be used by various groups, including the agricultural farming community, decision makers, land-use planners, officials, engineers, and environmental impact assessors. Conservationists and specialists in recreation, wildlife management, waste disposal, and pollution control will also use the soil information to help understand, protect and enhance the environment.
The report and maps provide a detailed assessment and account of soil in the Northern Emirates and are a fitting accompaniment to the Soil Survey of the Abu Dhabi Emirate.
Finally, the project produced a national soil map of the United Arab Emirates, by compiling results from this survey, the soil survey of Abu Dhabi completed in 2010, and the soil map of Dubai developed in 2003.
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:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Typic Argixerolls. (Soil Survey of Pinnacles National Monument, California; by Ken Oster, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typical landscape of Argixerolls on hills in the Central California Coast Range Major Land Resource Area at elevation of 980 to 2,490 feet. Overstory vegetation is Chamise and understory vegetation is Bushy spikemoss, black sage, wild oat, and California buckwheat.
Argixerolls are the Xerolls that have a relatively thin argillic horizon or one in which the percentage of clay decreases rapidly with increasing depth. Generally, the mollic epipedon is very dark brown and the argillic horizon is dark brown. Argixerolls formed mostly in mid-Pleistocene or earlier deposits or on surfaces of Tertiary age. Slopes range from nearly level to very steep. The natural vegetation is mostly grasses and shrubs, but some of the soils support coniferous forest vegetation with a grass and shrub understory and some have an open forest or savanna.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/CA7...
For additional information about soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class...
A Retic Planosol in Roeselare (province of West-Vlaanderen). This profile provided by S. Dondeyne
www.researchgate.net/profile/S-Dondeyne
For more information about this soil, visit:
www.researchgate.net/publication/267969329_The_soil_map_o...
A Planosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources is a soil with a coarse-textured, surface horizon that shows signs of periodic water stagnation and abruptly overlies a dense, slowly permeable subsoil with significantly more clay than the surface horizon. In the US Soil Classification of 1938 used the name Planosols, whereas its successor, the USDA soil taxonomy, includes most Planosols in the Great Groups Albaqualfs, Albaquults and Argialbolls.
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf
Planosols in their natural state support a sparse grass vegetation, often with scattered shrubs and trees that have shallow root systems that can cope with temporary waterlogging. Agricultural land use on is normally less intensive than that on most other soils under the same climate conditions. Vast areas of Planosols are used for extensive grazing. Wood production on Planosols is much lower than on other soils under the same conditions.
In the temperate zone these soils are mainly in grass or planted to crops such as wheat and sugar beet. Yields are modest even on drained and deeply loosened soils. Root development on natural unmodified Planosols is hindered severely by oxygen deficiency in wet periods, dense subsoil and, in places, by toxic levels of Al in the rootzone. Planosols in Southeast Asia are widely planted with paddy rice. Other crops met with little success. Fertilizers are needed for good yields. In climates with long dry periods and short infrequent wet spells the best land use are grasslands. Strongly developed Planosols with a very silty or sandy surface soil are best left untouched.
The Dixonville series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils formed in clayey colluvium and residuum derived from basalt. Dixonville soils are on hills. Slopes are 3 to 60 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, superactive, mesic Pachic Ultic Argixerolls
The mean annual soil temperature is 51 to 56 degrees F. The soils are usually moist but are dry between 4 and 12 inches for 45 to 60 consecutive days during the summer months within MLRA 2 but ranges to 90 days in MLRA 5. Depth weakly or moderately cemented basalt bedrock is 20 to 40 inches. The solum is 20 to 40 inches thick. The pscs has 40 to 55 percent clay, 0 to 35 percent rock fragments and 0 to 10 percent pararock fragments. The mollic epipedon is 20 to 36 inches thick.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for native pasture, hay, small grains, row crops, sweet cherries, filberts, and woodland. Oregon white oak and Douglas fir dominate the tree canopy. Other species are bigleaf maple and grand fir. The understory vegetation is western brackenfern, common snowberry, western hazelnut, Pacific poison-oak, and baldhip rose.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Foot slopes of the Coast Range and Cascade Range in western Oregon; MLRA 2, 5. The series is moderately extensive.
For a detailed description, visit:
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This photo accompanies Figure 11.—Indicator A5, Stratified Layers in sandy material. [Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the United States].
Thi soil has several stratified layers starting at a depth ≤15 cm (6 inches) from the soil surface. At least one of the layers has value of 3 or less and chroma of 1 or less, or it is muck, mucky peat, peat, or a mucky modified mineral texture. The remaining layers have chroma of 2 or less. For any sandy material that constitutes the layer with value of 3 or less and chroma of 1 or less, at least 70 percent of the visible soil particles must be masked with organic material, viewed through a 10x or 15x hand lens. Observed without a hand lens, the particles appear to be close to 100 percent masked.
The Helena series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from a mixture of felsic, intermediate, or mafic igneous or high-grade metamorphic rocks, such as aplitic granite or granite gneiss that is cut by dykes of gabbro and diorite, or mixed with hornblende schist or hornblende gneiss. These soils are on broad ridges and toeslopes of the Piedmont uplands. Slope is dominantly between 2 to 10 percent but ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Near the type location, mean annual precipitation is 46 inches, and mean annual temperature is 61 degrees F.
Taxonomic class: Fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic Aquic Hapludults
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Mostly cultivated
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--tobacco, corn, soybean, small grain, and vegetables. Dominant forest vegetation includes a mix of hardwood and pine. Native species include loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine, sweetgum, willow oak, red oak, white oak, yellow-poplar, and American elm. Understory species include sourwood, flowering dogwood, winged elm, eastern cedar, hophornbean, eastern redbud, and sassafrass.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
Appling soils--are well drained and have a low shrink-swell potential
Cecil soils--are well drained, have a red subsoil, and have a low shrink-swell potential
Cullen soils--are well drained, have a red subsoil, and have a low shrink-swell potential
Durham soils--have less clay in the subsoil
Enon soils--are well-drained and have a higher base saturation
Hard Labor--soils have a moderate shrink-swell potential
Iredell soils--have a higher base saturation
Louisburg soils--are well drained and have less clay in the subsoil
Mecklenburg soils--are well drained, have a red subsoil, and have a higher base saturation
Pacolet soils--are well drained, have a red subsoil, and have a low shrink-swell potential
Rion soils--are well drained and have less clay in the subsoil
Santuc soils--have less clay in the subsoil
Sedgefield soils--have a higher base saturation
Vance soils--are well drained.
Wedowee soils--are well drained and have a low shrink-swell potential
Wilkes soils--are well drained, have a higher base saturation, and have a depth to paralithic contact of less than 20 inches
Worsham soils--are poorly drained
For a detailed description, visit:
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A representative soil profile of Prade very cobbly clay in an area of Prade-Tarrant complex, 2 to 5 percent slopes. Prade soils are very shallow or shallow to a petrocalcic layer. The Bkm horizon is at a depth of 25 to 45 centimeters and the Cr layer is below 45 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Edwards and Real Counties, Texas; by Wayne J. Gabriel, Dr. Lynn E. Loomis, and James A. Douglass II Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Prade series consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in clayey residuum over marl and soft limestone bedrock. These soils are on gently sloping undulating plains on dissected plateaus. Slopes range from 1 to 8 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 787 mm (31 in), and mean annual air temperature is about 17.8 degrees C (64 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey-skeletal, smectitic, thermic, shallow Petrocalcic Calciustolls
Depth to the petrocalcic horizon: 10 to 50 cm (4 to 20 in)
Depth to paralithic contact: 18 to 53 cm (7 to 21 in)
Thickness of the mollic epipedon: 10 to 50 cm (4 to 20 in)
Particle-size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 35 to 60 percent
Rock fragments: 35 to 75 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly as rangeland. Native plants now growing on these soils are evax, Texas wintergrass, hairy tridens, sideoats grama, red grama, cedar sedge, fall witchgrass, threeawn, Hall's panicum, little bluestem, twinleaf senna, dogweed, greenbriar, Linheimer's muhly, sacahuista, twistleaf yucca, smooth yucca, Scribner's panicum, Texas grama, common curlymesquite, croton, seep muhly, Canada wildrye, dutchman's britches, hairy grama, knotleaf stemflower, plains lovegrass, prairie coneflower, snoutbean, bundleflower, silver bluestem, and tasajillo. Native woody plants are agarito, blueberry cedar, pricklypear, vasey oak, Texas persimmon, Spanish oak, evergreen sumac, green condalia, hackberry, and scattered liveoak and mesquite mainly growing on bands of limestone outcrops.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: In Southwest Texas, mainly in the Edwards Plateau. The series is of moderate extent. These soils were formerly included in the Tarrant and Eola series.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
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A representative soil profile of Brazoria clay, 0 to 1 percent slopes, rarely flooded. The profile is comprised of red clayey sediments. A buried A horizon is at a depth of about 175 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Colorado County, Texas; by Samuel E. Brown, Jr., Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Brazoria series consists of very deep, moderately well drained, very slowly permeable soils formed in clayey alluvial sediments on the flood plains of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers. These gently to moderate sloping soils occur on flood plains of the Coastal Plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 5 percent. Mean annual precipitation range from 1092 to 1397 mm (43 to 55 in), and mean annual air temperature is about 19.5 to 21.7 degrees C (67 to 71 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Very-fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Chromic Hapluderts
Soil Moisture: Udic soil moisture regime. The soil moisture control section is not dry in any part for as long as 90 days in normal years.
Mean annual soil temperature: 21.7 to 22.2 degrees C (71 to 72 degrees F)
Vertic features: 13 to 203 cm (5 to 80 in)
Particle-size control section (weighted average)
Clay content: 60.0 to 72 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Mainly used as cropland for production of cotton, sorghum, corn, and soybeans. Some areas are used for improved pasture of bermudagrass, dallisgrass, and white clover. Native vegetation is pecan, elm, hackberry, oak, and ash trees and mid and tall grasses.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mainly along the lower reaches of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers; Land Resource Region-T; MLRA-150A. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
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A representative soil profile of a Kastanozem from Russia. (Photo provided by Yakov Kuzyakov, revised.)
Kastanozems accommodate dry grassland soils, among them the soils of the short-grass steppe belt, south of the Eurasian tall-grass steppe belt with Chernozems. Kastanozems have a similar profile to that of Chernozems but the humus-rich surface horizon is thinner and not as dark as that of the Chernozems, and they show more prominent accumulation of secondary carbonates. The chestnut-brown colour of the surface soil is reflected in the name Kastanozem. Common names for many Kastanozems are (Dark) Chestnut soils (Russia), Kalktschernoseme (Germany), (Dark) Brown soils (Canada), Ustolls and Xerolls (United States of America) and Chernossolos (Brazil).
Calcic (from Latin calx, lime): having a calcic horizon starting ≤ 100 cm from the soil surface. A calcic horizon (from Latin calx, lime) is a horizon in which secondary calcium carbonate (CaCO3) has accumulated in a diffuse form (calcium carbonate occurs as impregnation of the matrix or in the form of fine calcite particles of < 1 mm, dispersed in the matrix) or as discontinuous concentrations (veins, pseudomycelia, coatings, soft and/or hard nodules). (WRB)
For more information, visit;
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Plate 36: Typical soil profile and associated landscape for the Al Hamra series (soil AD235).
Taxonomic Classification: Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic, shallow (USDA-Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 11th Edition, 2010)
Updated Taxonomic Classification: Petrogypsic Lithic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (UAE-Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 2014)
The Al Hamra series is a shallow sandy soil overlying a petrogypsic layer. The soils are typically well to excessively drained. They occur on flats and depressions within level to gently undulating deflation and sabkha plains. They are formed from eolian sands that overlie petrogypsic materials.
These soils predominantly occur on depressions and flats within level to gently undulating deflation and sabkha plains. They are formed from eolian sands that overlie petrogypsic materials.
These soils are used for rangeland grazing of camels though vegetation cover is frequently less than 5% and often absent. Common vegetation species recorded are Haloxylon salicornicum with occasional Zygophyllum spp.
This soil has been described from the northern part of the Ghayathi sub-area and is also relatively common within the As Sila’ sub-area. Occasional sites have also been described in the Al Ain subarea. The main feature of this soil is the shallow depth (<50cm) to a petrogypsic horizon and the high salinity levels in the soil overlying the hardpan. The soil material above the hardpan is sandy and also contains gypsum. The high level of salinity and limited depth to the hardpan layer are major constraints to the irrigable use of this soil. Limited depth to the hardpan layer restricts water movement, moisture retention and presents a barrier to root development further restricting the availability of nutrients. This soil is considered unsuitable for irrigated agriculture.
A representative soil profile and landscape of the Curtisden soil series from England. (Photos and information provided by LandIS, Land Information System: Cranfield University 2022. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK. Last accessed 14/01/2022). (Photos revised.)
These and associated soils are silty soils over siltstone with slowly permeable subsoils and slight seasonal waterlogging. Some similar well drained soils. Some well drained coarse loamy soils over sandstone. Slumping locally.
A soil scientist records the characteristics of the pedons, associated plant communities, geology, landforms, and other features that they study. They describe the kind and arrangement of soil horizons and their color, texture, size and shape of soil aggregates, kind and amount of rock fragments, distribution of plant roots, reaction, and other features that enable them to classify and identify soils. They describe plant species present (their combinations, productivity, and condition) to classify plant communities, correlate them to the soils with which they are typically associated, and predict their response to management and change.
Soil scientists are qualified to evaluate and interpret soils and soil-related data for the purpose of understanding soil resources as they contribute to not only agricultural production, but as they affect environmental quality and as they are managed for protection of human health and the environment. The university degree should be in Soil Science, or closely related field (i.e., natural resources, environmental science, earth science, etc.) and include sufficient soils-related course work so the Soil Scientist has a measurable level of understanding of the soil environment, including soil morphology and soil forming factors, soil chemistry, soil physics, and soil biology, and the dynamic interaction of these areas.
After the soil scientists identify and describe the properties of landscape components, or natural bodies of soils, the components are correlated to an appropriate taxonomic class, which is used for naming map units. Correlation, or comparison of individual soils with similar soils in the same taxonomic class in other areas, confirms data and helps the staff determine the need to assemble additional data. Taxonomic classes are concepts. Each taxonomic class has a set of soil characteristics with precisely defined limits. The classes are used as a basis for comparison to classify soils systematically.
For more information about Describing and Sampling soils, visit;
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For more information about Soil Taxonomy, visit;
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They are classified as Endostagnic Luvisols by the WRB soil classification system. (www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf)
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A representative soil profile of the Spickert series, terrace phase. (Soil Survey of Floyd County, Indiana; by Steven W. Neyhouse, Byron G. Nagel, and Dena L. Marshall, Natural Resources Conservation Service).
The Spickert series consists of deep or very deep, moderately well drained soils formed in loess and the underlying residuum from siltstone on hills. They are moderately deep to a fragipan. Slopes range from 2 to 12 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 1092 mm (43 inches), and the mean annual temperature is about 12 degrees C (54 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Fragiudults
The classification of this series is placed in the Fragiudult great group, and the subgroup would be Oxyaquic if it was recognized in Soil Taxonomy. Base saturation lab data runs between 24 and 46 percent. Base saturation determined by field kits also shows the base status goes above and below 35 percent, but is dominantly below 35 percent at the critical depth.
Depth to a fragipan: 51 to 91 cm (20 to 36 inches), except severely eroded
Thickness of the loess: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches)
pedons range from 30 to 51 cm (12 to 20 inches)
Depth to the base of the argillic horizon: 102 to 203 cm (40 to 80 inches)
Depth to bedrock (lithic contact): dominantly from 152 to 203 cm (60 to 80 inches), but ranges from 127 to 229 cm (50 to 90 inches)
Rock fragments are dominantly strongly cemented or very strongly cemented siltstone channers.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in forest or are used for hay and pasture. A few areas are used for growing cultivated crops, mainly corn and soybeans. Native vegetation is mixed hardwood forest.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: South-central Indiana. The series is of moderate extent in the east part of MLRA 120C in Indiana.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/indiana/IN043/...
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A representative soil profile of Drake soils, 1 to 8 percent slopes, showing various layers of soil deposition and accumulations of secondary calcium carbonate throughout the soil profile. (Soil Survey of Deaf Smith County, Texas; by Thomas C. Byrd, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Drake series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on linear or curvilinear playa dunes. These soils formed in calcareous, loamy eolian deposits of Quaternary age. Slope ranges from 1 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is 483 mm (19 in), and mean annual air temperature is 16 degrees C (61 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Aridic Calciustepts
Soil moisture: An ustic moisture regime bordering on aridic. The soil moisture control section is dry in some or all parts for more than 180 but less than 220 days, cumulative, in normal years. July through August and December through February are the driest months. These soils are intermittently moist September through November and March through June.
Mean annual soil temperature: 15 to 18 degrees C (59 to 64 degrees F).
Depth to secondary calcium carbonate: 13 to 51 cm (5 to 20 in).
Depth to calcic horizon: 25 to 102 cm (10 to 40 in).
Solum thickness: More than 203 cm (80 in).
Particle-size control section: 18 to 35 percent silicate clay
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used primarily for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Native vegetation includes mid and tall grasses with a lesser short grass component and a few woody plants. Forbs also occur but are not abundant. Grasses include sideoats and blue gramas, buffalograss, western wheatgrass, alkali sacaton, vine-mesquite, and small amounts of switchgrass. Other species include prairieclover, sensitivebrier, wild alfalfa, daleas, fourwing saltbrush, and cholla. Where cropped, the principal crops are cotton, grain sorghum, and wheat. This soil has been correlated to the High Lime (R077CY026TX) ecological site in MLRA-77C.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern High Plains, Southern Part (MLRA 77C in LRR H) of western Texas and eastern New Mexico. The soil is moderately extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/texas/TX117/0/...
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A representative soil profile of the Sogn series. The shallow, clayey Sogn soils formed directly over limestone. (Soil Survey of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas; United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service).
The Sogn series consists of shallow and very shallow, somewhat excessively drained, soils that formed in residuum weathered from limestone. Sogn soils are on hillslopes on uplands in Bluestem Hills, MLRA 76. Slopes range from 0 to 45 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 840 millimeters (33 inches), and mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C (55 degrees F) at the type location.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey, mixed, superactive, mesic Lithic Haplustolls
Soil moisture regime: Ustic bordering on Udic
Soil temperature regime: mesic
Mollic epipedon thickness: 10 to 49 centimeters (4 to 20 inches)
Depth to lithic contact: 10 to 49 centimeters (4 to 20 inches)
Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Clay content: 35 to 44 percent
Sand content: 2 to 14 percent
Rock fragments: 0 to 34 percent limestone gravels and channers
Some pedons do not contain free carbonates above the bedrock.
USE AND VEGETATION: Almost all areas are used for rangeland. Native vegetation is a tall-and mid-grass prairie. Sideoats grama, big bluestem, and little bluestem are dominant.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mostly in eastern Kansas, and widely spaced small areas are in western Missouri, eastern Iowa and Nebraska, northwestern Illinois, southeastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota, and southwestern Wisconsin..The Sogn series is extensive.
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A soil profile and landscape of a Haplosalid from the United Arab Emirates.
Fig. 5.27 Typic Haplosalids (AD145) UAE
Typic Haplosalids, coarse-loamy, mixed, hyperthermic soils are very deep, coarse-loamy soils with salinity throughout the profile. They occur mostly in eastern parts of the Emirate. They are typically somewhat poorly drained or moderately well drained and have moderately rapid or rapid permeability.
These soils occur within inland and coastal sabkha plains. These soils are frequently associated with Gypsic and Typic Aquisalids and Gypsic Haplosalids. In slightly drier plains they may be associated with Typic Haplogypsids and Leptic Haplogypsids. Where they are partially obscured by wind-blown sand they may be associated with Typic Torripsamments.
Commonly these soils remain as barren land as high salinity levels prevent the establishment of vegetation. Where there is a partial cover of wind-blown sand they may sometimes be used for low intensity grazing by camel, sheep or goats. They frequently have less than 5% vegetation cover of Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp.
The soils are recorded in eastern parts of the Emirate. They have been identified as a minor component in two map units.
Two phases of this soil family have been observed but in insufficient numbers to warrant a separate description and are thus included as taxadjuncts. They are the aquic phase in which a water table occurs between 100 and 200cm, and a lithic phase that encounters bedrock below 100cm. Neither soil has been used to define map units.
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:
A representative soil profile of a Cambisol from the Hungarian Soil Classification System (HSCS) by Prof. Blaskó Lajos (2008).
For more information about these soils, visit:
regi.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tamop425/0032_talajtan/ch...
CAMBISOLS: Soil that is only moderately developed on account of limited age or rejuvenation of the soil material (from the Latin cambiare meaning to change). A Cambisol is a young soil. Pedogenic processes are evident from colour development and/or structure formation below the surface horizon. Cambisols occur in a wide variety of environments around the world and under all many kinds of vegetation. Commonly referred to as brown soil, Braunerde (Germany), Sols bruns (France) or Brunizems (Russia). The USDA Soil Taxonomy classifies Cambisols as Inceptisols They cover 12 percent of Europe.
The current Hungarian Soil Classification System (HSCS) was developed in the 1960s, based on the genetic principles of Dokuchaev. The central unit is the soil type grouping soils that were believed to have developed under similar soil forming factors and processes. The major soil types are the highest category which groups soils based on climatic, geographical and genetic bases. Subtypes and varieties are distinguished according to the assumed dominance of soil forming processes and observable/measurable morphogenetic properties.
A profile of Chestnut gravelly fine sandy loam in an area of Chestnut-Peaks complex, 8 to 25 percent slopes, very rocky. (Soil Survey of Surry County, North Carolina; by Roger J. Leab, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Low and intermediate mountains and occasionally intermountain hills
Landform: Mountain slope, hillslopes, and ridges
Geomorphic Component: Mountain top, mountain flank, side slope, and interfluves
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, and backslope
Parent Material Origin: Felsic or mafic igneous or high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granite gneiss, granodiorite, biotite gneiss, and high-grade metagraywacke.
Parent Material Kind: Residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper solum.
Slope: Typically 15 to 95 percent, but range from 2 to 95 percent.
Elevation: 427 to 1524 meters; (1,400 to 5,000 feet)
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
Solum Thickness: 38 to 99 cm (15 to 39 inches)
Depth to Bedrock: 51 to 102 cm (20 to 40 inches) to weathered bedrock (paralithic); greater than 152 cm (60 inches) to unweathered bedrock (lithic).
Depth Class: Moderately Deep
Rock Fragment content: 0 to 35 percent, by volume, but typically less than 20 percent throughout the profile.
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid to moderately acid, except where limed
Content of Mica: 0 to 20 percent, by volume mica flakes throughout
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Woodland, less often pasture, hayland, and rarely cultivated crops.
Dominant Vegetation: Where wooded--scarlet oak, chestnut oak, white oak, black oak, hickory, eastern white pine, and Virginia pine. Yellow poplar and northern red oak occur in the north central mountains of MLRA 130-B. Understory species are dominantly mountain laurel, flowering dogwood, sourwood, chestnut sprouts, and buffalo nut. Where cleared--used for pasture and hay.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130-B) of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Extent: Large--more than 100,000 acres.
Chestnut soils were previously mapped with the Ashe series. Field studies indicate that Chestnut soils have significantly higher forest productivity than Ashe soils. Both Chestnut and Ashe soils are moderately deep to soft bedrock; however, Ashe soils have hard bedrock within 40 inches.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/north_carolina...
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Plate 11: Typical soil profile and associated landscape for the Ghuweifat series (soil AD211).
Taxonomic classification: Leptic Haplogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic
The Ghuweifat series is a very deep sandy soil. The soils are typically moderately well to excessively drained. They occur on flats and gentle slopes within level to gently undulating deflation plains. They are formed from eolian sands and occur in older landscapes.
These soils are used for rangeland grazing of camels though vegetation cover is frequently less than 5%. Common vegetation species recorded include Haloxylon salicornicum, Zygophyllum spp. and Stipagrostis plumosa.
This soil is common throughout the As Sila’ sub-area and the northern part of the Ghayathi subarea. Occasional sites have been described from the Al Ain sub-area.
The main feature of this soil is the deep, sandy profile that contains accumulations of gypsum virtually from the soil surface. This profile also contains a petrogypsic layer at depth but this is not diagnostic for this series. The shallow depth to, and quantity of, gypsum are the main issues affecting management for irrigated agriculture. Under irrigation subsidence may be a problem as gypsum is leached from the profile. The presence of gypsum may also be an indicator of possible salinity problems. This soil is unsuitable for irrigated agriculture.
A representative soil profile of the Zohner series. (Soil Survey of Teton Area, Idaho and Wyoming; by Carla B. Rebernak, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Zohner series consists of very deep, poorly drained soils that formed in mixed alluvium. Zohner soils are on flats and terraces on valley floors and the lower parts of fan remnants. Slopes are 0 to 2 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 406 millimeters and the mean annual air temperature is about 5 degrees C.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, carbonatic Calcic Cryaquolls
Mollic epipedon thickness: 18 to 46 cm
Depth to calcic: 5 to 13 cm
Depth to redoximorphic features (iron concentrations/depletions): 0 to 27 cm
Control section total clay: 20 to 40 percent
Control section carbonate clay: 2 to15 percent
Control section noncarbonate clay: 18 to 25 percent
Depth to sandy-skeletal material (3Bg or 3Cg horizon): 100 to 152 cm
Rock fragments: Where fragments are present, there are 15 to 30 percent gravel in the
particle size control section and 15 to 70 percent below the particle size control
section.
Soil reaction: Slightly alkaline to moderately alkaline
Mean annual soil temperature: 3.9 to 7.2 degrees C.
Mean summer soil temperature: 6.1 to 12.8 degrees C. cryic soil temperature regime
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major uses: Wet meadow pasture
Range/ecological site: R013XY039ID
Dominant native vegetation: Shrubby cinquefoil, slender wheat grass, baltic rush (and
other rushes), sedges, redtop, and scattered willows
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Eastern Idaho, MLRA 13
Extent: These soils are not extensive
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
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In South Korea are areas adjacent to the DMZ referred to as the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) where public access is restricted. Most of these areas are heavily farmed.
www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/7/708#:~:text=As%20established%....
South Korean farmers see these area adjecent 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.
In 1996 and 1998, unexploded ordnance killed two Korean civilians who had entered the Story range to look for scrap metal. Unexploded munitions and live-fire exercises make the area very dangerous. Unexploded ordnance in that area presents a very real and significant danger to anyone walking in the area. This danger is greatly amplified if someone is planting or harvesting crops... or sampling soils!
The South Korean Army supervises farming. 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.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Flaco extremely gravelly coarse sand, 1 to 3 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of Wupatki National Monument, Arizona; by James M. Harrigan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Lava flows in an area of Flaco-Lava flows complex, 1 to 18 percent slopes. These soils occur on talfs on relict lava fields.
The Flaco series consists of moderately deep, well drained, moderately slowly permeable soils that formed in alluvium and windblown sediments derived from basalt. Flaco soils are on old basalt capped mesas. Slope is 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 11 inches and mean annual air temperature is about 53 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Ustic Calciargids
Soil moisture: Ustic aridic soil moisture regime
Depth to bedrock: 20 to 40 inches
Particle-size control section: 18 to 35 percent clay
USE AND VEGETATION: Flaco soils are used for livestock grazing. Present native vegetation is blue grama, galleta, winterfat, juniper and cholla cactus.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The series is of small extent in westcentral New Mexico and eastcentral Arizona. MLRA 35.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arizona/wupatk...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/F/FLACO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of a Lithic Dystrudrept in Korea. KR
Lithic Dystrudepts are the Dystrudepts that have a lithic contact at a shallow depth. They formed mostly in acid igneous or metamorphic rocks. Most of the soils have moderate to steep slopes. Lithic Dystrudepts are 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 are used as forest. Some of the less sloping soils have been cleared and are used as pasture.
Landscape: Hills
Landform: Hill and hillslope
Anthropogenic Features: Dump, spoil pile and spoil bank
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, backslope, footslope and toeslope
Geomorphic Component: Crest, head slope, side slope and base slope
Parent Material: Coal extraction mine spoil derived from acid regolith, mainly carboliths (high carbon content rocks) of mine waste rock
Slope: 0 to 90 percent
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, semiactive, acid, mesic Typic Udorthents
Depth to Bedrock: Greater than 152 cm (60 inches)
Depth Class: Very deep
Rock Fragment Content: 15 to 80 percent, by volume, but averages 35 percent or more in the particle-size control section
Rock Fragment Size: 2 mm to 25 cm, but can include stones and boulders
Rock Fragment Type: Carboliths constitute more than 50 percent of the rock fragment volume, with siltstone, shale and sandstone making up the remainder
Fine-Earth Fraction: 4 to 15 percent clay in the control section
Soil Reaction: Extremely acid through strongly acid, except where limed
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Wildlife habitat and recreational areas.
Dominant Vegetation: These soils are generally barren, but they can support sparse grasses and legumes if the area has been "topsoiled".
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia; Extent: Moderate
Itmann soils were previously mapped as a variety of strip mine spoil and udorthents units. Carbolith is a name coined at West Virginia University to describe dark colored sedimentary rocks that will make a black or very dark (Munsell color value of 3 or less) streak or powder. Rocks under this name include coal not scheduled for mining, impure waste coal, bone coal, high carbon siltstones and high carbon shales.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/I/ITMANN.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Elk series. Elk soils have an argillic horizon that extends to a depth of 100 cm or more. (Soil Survey of Christian County, Kentucky, by Ronald D. Froedge, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Elk series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils formed in mixed alluvium from limestone, siltstone, shale, sandstone, and loess. Slopes commonly range from 0 to 12 percent, but the range extends to 40 percent. Near the type location, the average annual temperature is 57 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is 46.3 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs
Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 60 inches or more. Depth to bedrock is greater than 5 feet. Fragments range from 0 to 5 percent in the solumn and ranges from 0 to 35 percent in the C horizon. Reaction ranges from slightly acid through very strongly acid in the A and Bt horizons and from slightly acid through strongly acid in the C horizon.
USE AND VEGETATION: Largely in cultivated crops, principally corn, tobacco, small grains, soybeans, and hay or pasture. Native forest has oaks, elms, walnut, hickory, and ash as the dominant species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and possibly Missouri and Tennessee. Extent is moderate, about 200,000 acres.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/kentucky/chris...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/E/ELK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative soil profile of the Ardglass series in an area of improved grassland from Ireland. These soils formed in loamy lake alluvium.
For detailed information about this soil, visit;
gis.teagasc.ie/soils/rep_profile_sheet.php?series_code=05...
For information about the soil series of Ireland, visit;
gis.teagasc.ie/soils/soilguide.php
In the Irish soil classification system these soils are Humic Alluvial Gleys (soils influenced by water). These soils have evidence of reduced conditions (gleying) within 40 cm, with a humose topsoil.
For more information about describing and classifying soils using the Irish Soils Classification System, visit:
gis.teagasc.ie/soils/downloads/SIS_Final_Technical_Report...
A representative soil profile of the Rudge series (Arenic Chromic Endostagnic Luvisols) in England. (Cranfield University 2021. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK.)
Soils classified and described by the World Reference Base for England and Wales:
Luvisols have a higher clay content in the subsoil than in the topsoil, as a result of pedogenetic processes (especially clay migration) leading to an argic subsoil horizon. Luvisols have high-activity clays throughout the argic horizon and a high base saturation in the 50–100 cm depth. Many Luvisols are known as Texturally-differentiated soils and part of metamorphic soils (Russia), Sols lessivés (France), Parabraunerden (Germany), Chromosols (Australia) and Luvissolos (Brazil). In the United States of America, they were formerly named Grey-brown podzolic soils and belong now to the Alfisols with high-activity clays.
Endostagnic soil materials develop stagnic properties (from Latin stagnare, to stagnate) if they are, at least temporarily, saturated with surface water (or were saturated in the past, if now drained) for a period long enough that allows reducing conditions to occur (this may range from a few days in the tropics to a few weeks in other areas).
Endo- (from Greek endon, inside): the characteristic is present in the major part (or half or more of the part) between 50 and 100 cm from the (mineral) soil surface.
Chromic--having between 25 and 150 cm of the soil surface a layer, ≥ 30 cm thick, that has, in ≥ 90% of its exposed area, a Munsell colour hue redder than 7.5YR and a chroma of > 4, both moist (2: except Epi-).
Arenic--having a texture class of sand or loamy sand in a layer ≥ 30 cm thick, within ≤ 100 cm of the mineral soil surface or in the major part between the mineral soil surface and continuous rock, technic hard material or a cemented or indurated layer starting < 60 cm from the mineral soil surface starting < 60 cm from the mineral soil surface (2; no subqualifier if continuous rock or technic hard material starts < 60 cm from the mineral soil surface).
Rudge soils are mapped as a minor component with Newport Associations:
www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/mapunit.cfm?mu=5510...
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
A representative soil profile of an Oxisol (fine, kaolinitic, isohyperthermic Typic Kandiudox) from the Cerado physiographic region--a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais and the Federal District of Brazil. (Horizonation is by Brazil soil classification system.)
Oxisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy. Oxisols are weathered soils that are low in fertility. They are most common on the gentle slopes of geologically old surfaces in tropical and subtropical regions. Their profiles are distinctive because of a lack of obvious horizons. Their surface horizons are normally somewhat darker than the subsoil, but the transition of subsoil features is gradual. Some oxisols have been previously classified as laterite soils.
Both the structure and “feel” of Oxisols are deceptive. Upon first examination, they appear structureless and have the feel of a loamy texture. While some are loamy or even coarser textured, many have a fine or very-fine particle-size class, but the clay is aggregated in a strong grade of fine and very fine granular structure. To obtain a true “feel” of the texture, a wet sample must be worked for several minutes in the hands to break down the aggregates. The strong granular structure apparently causes most Oxisols to have a much more rapid permeability than would be predicted, given the particle-size class. Although compaction and reduction in permeability can be caused by cultivation, the soils are extremely resistant to compaction and are so free draining that cultivation can take place soon after rain without puddling.
In the Brazil soil classification system, these Latossolos are highly weathered soils composed mostly of clay and weathering resistant sand particles. Clay silicates of low activity (kaolinite clays) or iron and aluminum oxide rich (haematite, goethite, gibbsite) are common. There are little noticeable horizonation differences. These are naturally very infertile soils, but, because of the ideal topography and physical conditions, some are being used for agricultural production. These soils do require fertilizers because of the ease of leaching of nutrients through the highly weathered soils.
For additional information about these soils, visit:
sites.google.com/site/soil350brazilsoilsla/soil-formation...
and...
For additional information about U.S. soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class...
A soil profile of a Fragiudalf in Tennessee. This soil has a firm, dense, fragipan with prismatic structure below a depth of about 60 cm. The gray vertical penetrations of soil material consist of friable, eluvial silt coatings surrounding the browner, clay-enriched soil material of the dense prism interiors. Percolating water tends to move downward through the gray seams. (Soil Survey Staff. 2015. Illustrated guide to Soil Taxonomy. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska)
Fragiudalfs have a fragipan (firm and brittle but not cemented layer) within a depth of 100 cm. They commonly have an argillic (clay accumulation) or cambic (minimal soil development) subsoil horizon above the fragipan. Redoximorphic features (gray and red mottled color pattern) are in many pedons, starting at a depth 50 to 100 cm. Ground water is perched seasonally above the fragipan, and a thin eluvial horizon commonly is directly above the fragipan.
Most Fragiudalfs in the United States are on gentle slopes and formed, at least in part, in silty or loamy deposits. The deposits are largely of late-Pleistocene age. The fragipan formed in an older buried soil in some areas. A fragipan seems to form if the burial was to a depth of about 50 to 75 cm. Temperature regimes are mostly cold to warm. In the United States, the native vegetation on these soils was primarily a broadleaf deciduous forest.
For additional information about soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/cla...
The Hilo soil series is the official state soil of Hawaii. It was established in 1949 and was first mapped in Soil Survey of the Territory of Hawaii published in 1955. The Hilo series occurs on the Island of Hawaii, to the north of the town of Hilo. The Hilo soils are derived from volcanic ash and occur on the wet, rainy side of Mauna Kea volcano.
Hilo soils consist of deep, well drained soils that formed in material weathered from volcanic ash deposits underlain by lava flows. These highly weathered acidic soils are known for their bright red color indicative of the iron and aluminum oxides that form in this warm and humid environment. Hilo soils formed on the low elevation slopes of Mauna Kea volcano, the second oldest volcano on the Island of Hawaii.
The landscape was originally formed by lava flows 100- to 300-thousand years ago when Mauna Kea was actively erupting. In later stages of volcanic activity, cinder cones formed on the slopes of Mauna Kea, depositing layers of volcanic ash. Today’s landscape consists of coastal cliffs and rolling hills that have been dissected by steep drainages that often feature breathtaking waterfalls.
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 of Kranzburg silt loam. There is about 60 centimeters of silt loam material over the
clay loam glacial till. (Soil Survey of Spink County, South Dakota; by James B. Millar, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Kranzburg series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in loess overlying glacial till on uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 9 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 559 millimeters (22 inches) and mean annual air temperature is 6 degrees C (43 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Calcic Hapludolls
The depth to calcium carbonates typically is about 64 centimeters (25 inches), but ranges from 36 to 91 centimeters (14 to 36 inches). Thickness of the mollic epipedon ranges from 18 to 41 centimeters (7 to 16 inches), and extends into the Bw horizon of some pedons. The depth to glacial till ranges from 51 to 102 centimeters (20 to 40 inches). The glacial till contains more than 15 percent fine sand and coarser and 1 to 8 percent rock fragments. A stone line 3 to 8 centimeters (1 to 3 inches) in thickness is at the glacial till contact in most pedons. The particle size control section averages between 24 and 32 percent clay.
USE AND VEGETATION: Almost all areas used to grow corn, small grain or alfalfa. Native vegetation is big bluestem, little bluestem, western wheatgrass, needleandthread, blue grama and sideoats grama, sedges and forbs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA-10A and MLRA-55B. Eastern and northeastern South Dakota and adjacent areas in Minnesota and North Dakota. The series is extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/south_dakota/S...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/K/KRANZBURG.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A Typic Sphagnofibrist from south-west Poland--lower Silesia region and the Sudetes Mountains. These soils formed organic materials. (Photo provided by Cezary Kabala, Institute of Soil Science, University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland.)
The central concept or Typic subgroup of Sphagnofibrists is fixed on thick, continuous fibric organic materials that were derived primarily from Sphagnum. These soils do not have a lithic contact and do not have a layer of water within the control section, below the surface tier. At least three-fourths of the fibric materials, by volume, were derived from Sphagnum. These soils occur as raised bogs or high moors in closed depressions and as blanket bogs on more or less dissected landscapes. Layers of organic material more decomposed than fibric materials affect the movement of water and indicate an intergrade to Hemists. Thin mineral layers normally affect the movement of water drastically. Typic Sphagnofibrists are used mostly as wildlife habitat. A few have been cleared and are used for specialty crops. These soils are of small extent in the United States.
These soils are classified as a Dystric Ombric Fibric Histosols (Hyperorganic) by the World Reference Base (WRB).
For more information about this soil, visit:
karnet.up.wroc.pl/~kabala/Organiczne.html
For more information on the World Reference Base soil classification system, visit:
www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf
For additional information about the US Soil Taxonomy soil classification system, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/cla...
A representative soil profile of the Knoco soil series. (Soil Survey of Woods County, Oklahoma; by Richard Gelnar, Jimmy Ford, Clay Salisbury, Clay Wilson, and Glen Williams, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
The Knoco series consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained, very slowly permeable soils that formed in residuum weathered from claystone over dense noncemented claystone bedrock of Permian age. These very gently sloping to very steep soils occur on interfluves, side slopes and erosional footslopes on dissected plains. Slopes range from 1 to 60 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 686 mm (27 in) and the mean annual air temperature is about 17.2 degrees C (63 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey, mixed, active, calcareous, thermic, shallow Aridic Ustorthents
Soil Moisture: Typic ustic soil moisture regime.
Depth to bedrock, densic: 8 to 51 cm (3 to 20 in)
Thickness of the ochric epipedon: 0 to 36 cm (0 to 14 in)
Depth to secondary carbonates: 0 to 41 cm (0 to 16 in)
Surface fragments: Calcareous nodules and sandstone pebbles range from a few to a pavement. There are a few siliceous pebbles on the surface of some pedons. Some pedons have sandstone or limestone stones or boulders on the surface. Fragments range from 1 to 20 feet across the long axis, and are about 1 to 5 feet thick. These fragments cover about 2 to 25 percent of the surface layer in some soil areas.
Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Clay Content: 35 to 60 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for rangeland. The native vegetation consists of a sparse cover of tobosagrass, buffalograss, blue grama and sideoats grama, with a few scrubby mesquite, juniper, and pricklypear cactus; about 10 to 50 percent ground cover in most areas.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North central Texas, western Oklahoma, and a small part of south central Kansas; Land Resource Region - H; MLRA-78A (Rolling Limestone Prairie), MLRAs - 78B and 78C (Central Rolling Red Plains); The series is extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/oklahoma/OK151...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/K/KNOCO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Typical profile of Dayton silt loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes. The heavy textured clay layer is between 30 and 70 centimeters. (Soil Survey of Benton County, Oregon; Matthew H. Fillmore, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Irish Bend cutbank in an area of Dayton silt loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes. Dayton soils are on nearly level or somewhat concave, slightly depressed parts of broad valley terraces at elevations of 150 to 400 feet. They formed in silty and clayey glaciolacustrine deposits.
Map Unit Setting
General landscape: Valleys
Major land resource area (MLRA): 2
Elevation: 150 to 400 feet
Mean annual precipitation: 40 to 50 inches
Mean annual air temperature: 50 to 54 degrees F
Frost-free period: 165 to 210 days
Map Unit Composition
Dayton and similar soils: 93 percent
Dissimilar minor components: 7 percent
Setting
Landform: Concave and linear areas of terraces
Geomorphic position (three-dimensional): Treads
Downslope shape: Linear
Across-slope shape: Linear, concave
Properties and qualities
Parent material: Silty and clayey glaciolacustrine deposits
Slope range: 0 to 2 percent
Depth to restrictive feature: 12 to 24 inches to abrupt textural change
Drainage class: Poorly drained
Capacity of the most limiting soil layer to transmit water (Ksat): Low
Frequency of flooding: None
Frequency of ponding: Frequent (see Water Features table)
Seasonal high water table (minimum depth): At the surface to a depth of 9 inches
(see Water Features table)
Salinity (maximum): Not saline
Sodicity (maximum): Not sodic
Available water capacity (entire profile): Very high (about 14.3 inches)
Interpretive groups
Land capability subclass (nonirrigated): 4w
Land capability subclass (irrigated): 4w
Typical profile
A—0 to 9 inches; silt loam
E1—9 to 12 inches; silt loam
E2—12 to 15 inches; silt loam
2Bt1—15 to 22 inches; silty clay
2Bt2—22 to 29 inches; silty clay
2BCt1—29 to 40 inches; silty clay
2BCt2—40 to 53 inches; silt loam
3C—53 to 76 inches; silt loam
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for growing spring grains, grass seed, hay and pasture. Native vegetation is grasses, weeds, rosebushes and widely spaced ash trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Dayton soils are found throughout the Willamette Valley in western Oregon; MLRA 2. They are extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/oregon/OR003/0...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DAYTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Chilcott soils are nearly level to moderately steep on high terraces, mesas, calderas, shield volcanos and basalt plains at elevations of 2,300 to 5,300 feet. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. These soils formed in a thin mantle of loess over silty alluvium from loess and weathered volcanic ash over loamy or sandy and gravelly alluvium from igneous materials. The climate is cool, moist in the winter and hot, dry in the summer. Average annual precipitation is dominantly 8 to 12 inches, but ranges to 15 inches in the Boise Front (Ada County, Idaho). Average annual temperature is 45 to 54 degrees F. Frost-free period is 90 to 170 days.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; slow to rapid runoff; slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Chilcott soils are used mainly for irrigated cropland, hayland and pastureland at lower elevations and for rangeland and wildlife habitat at higher elevations. Crops grown include corn and small grains. The dominant natural vegetation is Wyoming big sagebrush, Thurber needlegrass, and bluebunch wheatgrass.
TYPE LOCATION: Gem County, Idaho; about 9 miles northwest of Emmett; 2,400 feet south and 1,100 feet west of the northeast corner of section 7, T.7 N., R.2 W.; USGS Northwest Emmett Quadrangle; (Latitude 43 degrees, 57 minutes, 33 seconds N. and Longitude 116 degrees, 36 minutes, 57 seconds W.)
For additional information about Idaho soils, please visit:
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/97d01af9d4554b9097cb0a477e04...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CHILCOTT.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Fuquay series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in sandy and loamy marine sediments of the upper Coastal Plain. Permeability is moderate in the upper part of the subsoil and slow in the lower part. Slopes range from 0 to 10 percent.
Taxonomic class: Loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults
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.
Arenic Plinthic Kandiudults soils 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 small extent in the United States.
USE AND VEGETATION:
Major Uses: Cropland
Dominant Vegetation: Where cultivated--tobacco, cotton, corn, soybeans, and small grains. Where wooded--loblolly pine, longleaf pine, and slash pine, with some hardwoods, understory plants including American holly, flowering dogwood, persimmon, and greenbrier.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Distribution: Upper Coastal Plain of North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina
Extent: Large
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Johnston County, North Carolina; 1965. The Fuquay series is a Benchmark soil.
A benchmark soil is one of large extent within one or more major land resource areas (MLRAs), one that holds a key position in the soil classification system, one for which there is a large amount of data, one that has special importance to one or more significant land uses, or one that is of significant ecological importance.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/F/FUQUAY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit: