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Liwa Dunes area. This region lies in the southern part of the Emirate and to the north of the Rub al Khali at Liwa. It comprises medium to high, rolling to steep linear and transverse dune systems that, in some areas, have been partially overlain by more recent barchanoid dunes. Scattered small deflation plains and sabkha flats are prominent features in some areas.
A Typic Torripsamment. These areas are narrow sinuous dune ridges that form linear or roughly rectangular patterns around deflation plains and inland sabkha flats. The dunes have a relative relief of about 80m. Dune formations are variable due to multi-directional winds, and include barchanoid, transverse and star shapes. The star dunes are often higher than the surrounding dunes and form impressive and imposing features in the landscape. A white, gray or red surface veneer of fine to coarse sand and fine gravel occurs on the gentle slopes of the dunes adjacent to the sabkhas and deflation plains.
The land is used as low-density grazing. The map unit has sparse vegetation cover with Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp on the lower slopes of the dunes together with Calligonum comosum on the slopes and slip faces. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.
The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (85% AD158) in the high dunes. Other soils are Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD123), Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD143) and Gypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD135) that are confined to the deflation flats.
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:
One small unit represents this region on the mainland of the Abu Dhabi Emirate at Jabal Az Zannah. As its name suggests it comprises a salt dome against which eolian sediments have accumulated.
This region lies in the north-western part of the Emirate near Ghayathi. It comprises eroded Quaternary and Miocene sediments often with a deflation regolith of fine gravels.
A plinthic soil contains a significant amount of plinthite. Plinthite (Gr. plinthos, brick) is an iron-rich, humus-poor mixture of clay with quartz and other highly weathered minerals. It commonly occurs as reddish redox concentrations in a layer that has a polygonal (irregular), platy (lenticular), or reticulate (blocky) pattern. Plinthite irreversibly hardens upon exposure to repeated wetting and drying, especially if exposed to heat from the sun. Other morphologically similar iron-rich materials that do not progressively harden upon repeated wetting and drying are not considered plinthite. The horizon in which plinthite occurs commonly has 2.5 percent (by mass) or more citrate dithionite extractable iron in the fine-earth fraction and a ratio between acid oxalate extractable Fe and citrate-dithionite extractable Fe of less than 0.10.
In soil science, the "C" horizon is the soil layer consisting more or less of weathered parent rock or deposited material that is little affected by pedogenesis (soil formation). 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 clay coats or clay flows.
The dark red zone in the lower part of this profile is an example of the aquitard layer below a well developed plinthic B horizon of a coastal plain soil. This layer seasonally perches water facilitating plinthite formation. The horizon exhibits very weak very coarse blocky structure with very thick clay coating on internal seams or cracks. Clay coating is common in the very deep layers (3-4 meters or more below the soil surface) where pedogenesis is thought to be minimal or not present. The red area has a sandy loam to sandy clay loam texture, whereas the gray area has texture of clay loam or clay.
The gray tubes or channels throughout the aquitard layer are thought to be formed by biological activity at a time when the sediments were being deposited. In the current environment, they commonly contain coarse roots within elongated macropores. The macropores may be completed filled with soil material or they be open (areas that once contained live roots, but are currently void of roots due to decomposition), allowing for the transmission of air and water within the channel.
Because of the dark red color and dense characteristics, these layers are referred to by the local soil scientists as the "brick" layer.
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...
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-...
Many areas of Crider soils have undulating to rolling karst topography. Commonly, the karst areas have inclusions of Nolin soils in the depressions.
www.soils4teachers.org/files/s4t/k12outreach/ky-state-soi...
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/kentucky/chris...
The Crider series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands. They formed in a loess mantle and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. Crider soils are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. The upper 20 to 45 inches of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum or old alluvium.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco, and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forest, chiefly of oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal and the western Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky; the northern part of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, Illinois and possibly northeast Arkansas. The soil is of large extent, about 1,000,000 acres.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
An area of Cecil soil in North Carolina. The Cecil soil series is the State Soil of North Carolina. What is a State Soil? A state soil is a soil that has special significance to a particular state. Each state in the United States has selected a state soil, twenty of which have been legislatively established. These “Official State Soils” share the same level of distinction as official state flowers and birds.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Cowboy series. (Soil Survey of Glen Canyon Recreation Area, Arizona and Utah; by Michael W. Burney, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Cowboy clay loam, 3 to 10 percent slopes. Claysprings-Badland complex, 2 to 40 percent slopes is in the background. Cowboy soils are on fan piedmonts, drainageways, and flood plains. Slopes range from 1 to 12 percent. These soils formed on slope alluvium, alluvium, and residuum derived from Mancos Shale. Elevation ranges from 4,800 to 5,700 feet.
The Cowboy series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in alluvium and slope alluvium derived from Mancos Shale. Cowboy soils are on flood plains drainageways and fan piedmonts. Slopes range from 1 to 12 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, mesic Leptic Haplogypsids
Note: Cowboy soil as used in this survey, is a taxadjunct because the gypsic horizon is deeper than typical for the series. This does not affect use and management of the soils.
Soil moisture regime: Typic aridic
Mean annual soil temperature: 54 to 58 degrees F
Depth to paralithic contact: 60 inches or more
Depth to gypsum accumulations: 2 to 10 inches
Depth to gypsic horizon: 3 to 7 inches
Expansive features: cracks to 20 inches, .75 inch wide, 3 or 4 inches apart
Particle-size control section (weighted average):
Clay content: 40 to 60 percent
Rock fragments: 0 to 5 percent sedimentary gravel
USE AND VEGETATION: Cowboy soils are used for grazing. Native vegetation is bottlebrush squirreltail, Gardner saltbush, and little barley.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwest Colorado; MLRA 35. This series is of small extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/arizona/glenca...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/COWBOY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
McLean County, KY (37°35'41.5"N 87°20'18.0"W)
For more information about the Soil Survey of McLean County [CLICK HERE]
The Alford series (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs) consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in loess. These soils are commonly on loess hills and less commonly on outwash plains. Slopes range from 0 to 60 percent. They are commonly on summits, shoulders and backslopes of loess hills, and less commonly on broad swells of outwash plains. Alford soils formed in 203 to more than 366 cm (80 to more than 144 inches) of loess and commonly overlie other landforms. In places, this soil formed completely in loess of the Peorian interglacial stage. In other places the upper part of the soil formed in Peorian loess, and the lower part formed in a loess member that has a sand content higher than the Peorian and is known locally as "gritty loess". The slope gradient ranges from 0 to 60 percent.
The Hosmer series (fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs) consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils formed in loess on hills. They are moderately deep to a fragipan. Slopes are commonly 2 to 12 percent, but range from 0 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 1068 mm (42 inches) and mean annual temperature is about 14 degrees C (57 degrees F). They are commonly on summits, shoulders, and backslopes of loess hills. Hosmer soils formed in either silty loess, or silty loess and the underlying "gritty" loess which has a higher sand content. The slope gradient is commonly 2 to 12 percent, but ranges from 0 to 30 percent.
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-...
This region occurs in the north of the Emirate. It comprises undulating carbonatic sand sheets that often overlie semi-lithified remnants of older dune systems, together with intervening sabkha flats and deflation plains.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Walong series. The moderately deep to soft bedrock Walong soils have a mollic epipedon, weak structure, and a paralithic contact of gneiss at a depth of 50 to 100 centimeters. (Supplement to the Soil Survey of Los Angeles County, California, Southeastern Part; by Randy L. Riddle and Christopher “Kit” Paris, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: An area of Walong soil on a steep side slope at the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. Walong soils are on uplands and have gradients of 15 to 75 percent. They formed in material weathered from granite. Elevations are 800 to 5,800 feet. The climate has cold moist winters and hot dry summers. The mean annual precipitation is 10 to 30 inches. The mean annual temperature ranges from 57 to 62 degrees F.; the mean January temperature is about 47 degrees F.; and the mean July temperature is about 83 degrees F. The frost free season is 150 to 250 days.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, thermic Typic Haploxerolls
Depth to a paralithic contact with weathered granitic rock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. The soil between depths of 8 to 24 inches is usually dry all the time from late May until mid November (or 1/2 the time), and is moist in some part for more than 90 consecutive days. The mean annual soil temperature is 59 to 64 degrees F. Organic matter is more than 1 percent to a depth of 14 to 18 inches and decreases regularly to less than 1 percent at this depth. An 01 horizon is present in some pedons where there has been some accumulation of organic matter or litter. Rock fragments 2 mm to 2 cm in diameter range from 0 to 15 percent by volume, and rock fragments 7 to 25 cm in diameter range from 0 to 10 percent.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for range, wildlife, watershed, and recreation. Vegetation is annual grasses, blue oaks, ad=nd live oaks.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Foothills of the southern Sierra Neveda and the Tehachapi Mountains. The soils are moderately extensive.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/los...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WALONG.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil scientists preparing to sample soils. Spodic soils refer to a diagnostic subsurface horizon defined by the illuvial accumulation of organic matter. Iron oxide can be present or absent, and the soil is generally derived from a sandy parent material. Spodic may also refer to the taxonomic soil order spodosols.
For more information about Describing and Sampling soils, visit;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about Soil Taxonomy, visit;
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Typic Xerorthents, tephra. (Soil Survey of Lassen Volcanic National Park, California; by Andrew E. Conlin, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typic Xerorthents, tephra consist of very deep, excessively drained soils that formed in tephra from Cinder Cone. These soils are on tephra-covered moraines, outwash plains, lake terraces, and lava flows. Slopes range from 2 to 50 percent. (Photo: Lassen Peak and Chaos Crags are in the background and Cinder Cone is in the middle ground.)
Taxonomic Classification: Frigid Typic Xerorthents
Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Tephra deposits are common in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Many soils have a few inches of tephra, and in some cases the whole soil profile to a depth of 60 inches formed in tephra. The more recent deposits show a distinct boundary at the buried soil profile, and the initial depositional beds are clearly visible.
Older tephra deposits have been mixed with the underlying soil profile by living organisms, such as ants and burrowing animals, and by tree throws and are not as obvious. Different volcanic vents have produced different characteristics, such as the mineralogy and size, thickness, and variability of the ejecta. The size, thickness, and variability within the deposit are also influenced by the proximity to the vent and the direction from the vent.
Major sources of recent tephra are Chaos Crags, Lassen Peak, and Cinder Cone. Tephra from Chaos Crags is pumicious and contains more volcanic glass than the basaltic andesite scoria from Cinder Cone. This difference in mineralogy can affect the rate of weathering. The weathering stage of a soil influences physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics that impact soil behavior. Soils that formed from some of the thicker deposits of tephra from Cinder Cone are Typic Xerorthents, Typic Xerorthents, tephra and Typic Xerorthents, welded.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/las...
Farmers bring their loose grass to a central location where it is baled and prepared for shipping and sale. I observed two areas where this occurred. The other was along the al Ain truck road.
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/35965802685/in/album-72157...
Most of the UAE's cultivated land is taken up by date palms, which in the early 1990s numbered about 4 million. They are cultivated in the arc of small oases that constitute the Al Liwa Oasis. Both federal and emirate governments provide incentives to farmers. For example, the government offers a 50 percent subsidy on fertilizers, seeds, and pesticides. It also provides loans for machinery and technical assistance. The emirates have forty-one agricultural extension units as well as several experimental farms and agricultural research stations. The number of farmers rose from about 4,000 in the early 1970s to 18,265 in 1988.
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
World Soil Day (Germany) Photo and text provided by:
www.iuss.org/meetings-events/world-soil-day/world-soil-da...
In Germany the World Soil Day was used to announce the Soil of the Year 2013: The Plaggic Anthrosol (Plaggenesch). The German name Plaggenesch combines the terms “Plaggen” and “Esch”. “Plaggen”, or sods, are flat blocks of soil material with its above herbal or shrub or grassy vegetation and felted roots, shallowly scraped with a hoe or a spade. “Esch” originated from the Gothic word “astic”, and describes a usually slightly more elevated area of the arable land.
According to German Soil Taxonomy, the diagnostic horizon of a Plaggenesch is the “E” horizon, which is more than 40 cm in thickness, containing at least 0.6 % organic matter and increased phosphate contents. Additionally, artefacts such as charcoal, pieces of bricks and other remnants of daily use are typical findings. Plaggenesch soils can be differentiated into “Brown Plaggenesch” (resulting from loamy meadow sods of a brownish colour and “Grey Plaggenesch” (composed of sandy and greyish heather sods).
Further information and material (posters, flyers, CD’s):
sites.google.com/site/soilsofgermany/home/soil-information
Kuratorium Boden des Jahres, Professor M. Frielinghaus, ZALF Müncheberg, frielinghaus@zalf.de
Prof. Luise Giani, Uni Oldenburg: luise.giani@uni-oldenburg.de
Prof. Klaus Mueller, Dr. Lutz Markowski, HS Osnabrück: k.mueller@hs-osnabrueck.de; l.makowsky@hs-osnabrueck.de
Dr. Wolf Eckelmann, BGR Hannover: w.eckelmann@bgr.de
Bundesverband Boden (BVB), www.bvboden.de
A "patchwork quilt" of 324 soil profiles from the Abgog to Yuwon soil series composed of images from the NAS (National Institute of Agricultural Sciences), Republic of Korea (naas.go.kr/english/)
The National Institute of Agricultural Sciences seeks to enable the general public including farmers to gain access to soil information easily by providing information on the attributes of soils and soil test information covering individual areas.
When described, using the Soil Taxonomy of the USDA, soils in Korea are classified into seven Soil Orders which are then further divided into 16 Sub-Orders according to soil moisture regime. Among those seven Soil Orders, the younger soils, Entisols and Inceptisols, are dominant. Entisols are the youngest soils, followed by Inceptisols. Alfisols and Ultisols are relatively older soils. The working unit of soil classification is Soil Series. Currently, over 400 soil series have been identified in South Korea.
Soil series are a level of classification in the USDA Soil Taxonomy classification system hierarchy. The actual object of classification is the so-called soil individual, or pedon. Soil series consist of pedons that are grouped together because of their similar pedogenesis, soil chemistry, and physical properties. More specifically, each series consists of pedons having soil horizons that are similar in soil color, soil texture, soil structure, soil pH, consistence, mineral and chemical composition, and arrangement in the soil profile. These result in soils which perform similarly for land use purposes.
The soil series concept was originally introduced in 1903. Soil series were originally intended to consist of groups of soils which were thought to be the same in origin but different in texture. Soils were thought to be alike in origin if they were derived from the same kind of rocks or if they were derived in sediments derived from the same kind of rocks and deposited at the same time.
A soil series name generally is derived from a town or landmark in or near the area where the soil series was first recognized. For example, the Haugan Series in the U.S. was first identified near Haugan, Montana. The distribution of a given series is not necessarily restricted to the boundaries of only one county or state—for example, the Hagerstown Series was first described near Hagerstown, Maryland, but has also been found as far away as Tennessee and Kentucky.
For more information about soil series from Korea, visit;
soil.rda.go.kr/eng/series/series.jsp
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-...
Human-Altered and Human-Transported Soils (HAHT) soils can be identified not only by diagnostic features in the soil profile but also by their association with anthropogenic landforms, whether manufactured items are found in the profile or not. This ancient urban area has geometric hillslope terraces on cut-and-fill landforms (foreground and lower right) created by humans in mountainous terrain to allow grazing, farming, and house building on formerly steep slopes. It demonstrates intentional human modification and transportation of soil. (Photo by Pedro Szekely)
Soils in urban areas are commonly human-transported (e.g., fill) or human-altered (e.g., truncated or mixed in situ) to significant depth. They generally exhibit a wide variety of conditions, and many are covered with impervious surfaces (e.g., buildings and pavements). The same situation occurs in suburban and low-density urban areas, but the proportion of less altered soils is higher and the proportion of buildings and pavements is lower. In many areas with HAHT soils, surface geomorphology and hydrology have been intensely altered. Other highly modified landscapes contain significant amounts of human-transported materials, such as steep farmland with closely spaced hillslope terraces and areas of intense activity, such as mines, oilfields, and highway corridors.
Spoils from land-leveling, filling, construction, mining, dredging, waste disposal, and manufacturing operations become parent materials for new soils, which are commonly used to extend urban areas or airports into shallow water or to fill wetlands. Major areas of human-altered materials occur where agricultural areas have been deeply ripped to loosen impervious subsoil horizons, such as in the Central Basin of California. There is a need to identify, describe, and map HAHT soils because these soils have been modified enough from their original state that former soil maps do not provide the correct information or there is no information on them at all.
The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil’s agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa, discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In the late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being spread on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area. Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybeans, until then a temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand.
Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of Eucalyptus and Pinus, but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
Soils of the cerrado are in the order of Oxisols. Oxisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest, 15-25 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are classified as ferralsols in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources; some oxisols have been previously classified as laterite soils.The main processes of soil formation of oxisols are weathering, humification and pedoturbation due to animals. These processes produce the characteristic soil profile. They are defined as soils containing at all depths no more than 10 percent weatherable minerals, and low cation exchange capacity. Oxisols are always a red or yellowish color, due to the high concentration of iron(III) and aluminium oxides and hydroxides. In addition they also contain quartz and kaolin, plus small amounts of other clay minerals and organic matter.
Oxisol:
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/51868408510/in/album-72157...
For more information on Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class/
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Snow drift? No, this is a pile of agricultural limestone, ready to be spread on the field. Limestone is absolutely essential for reducing the acidity and aluminum toxicity of highly weathered Oxisol soils.
A Typic Haplosalid from the interior of the UAE.
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:
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...
The upland soils are dominantly in the Moenkopie series associated with Rock outcrop. The Moenkopie series consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained soils that formed in materials from sandstone and shale. Moenkopie soils are on mesas, plateaus, hills, and structural benches. Slopes are 0 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 52 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Lithic Torriorthents
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Vegetation is blue grama, galleta, alkali sacaton, threeawn, fourwing saltbush, snakeweed, and sand dropseed, and juniper, algerita, cliffrose, and widely spaced pinyon pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Arizona and southern Utah. The series is of large extent, more than 500,000 acres.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MOENKOPIE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#moenkopie
Rock outcrop are miscellaneous areas that have little or no identifiable soil and thus supports little or no vegetation without major reclamation. They are exposures of bare bedrock. If needed, map units can be named according to the kind of rock, e.g., “Rock outcrop, chalk,” “Rock outcrop, limestone,” and “Rock outcrop, gypsum.” If small, they can be identified by spot symbols on maps.
Torrifluvents are along the narrow floodplain. These are the Fluvents of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Most of them have a high pH value and are calcareous, and a few are somewhat salty. The soils are subject to flooding, but most are not flooded frequently or for long periods. The larger areas that have a favorable topography and are close to a source of water commonly are irrigated. The natural vegetation on the Torrifluvents in the United States consisted mostly of grasses, xerophytic shrubs, and cacti, but in some parts of the world the only vegetation on the soils has been irrigated crops because the sediments accumulated while the soils were being cultivated.
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Soil Survey Manual, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
A Typic Haplogypsid, petrogypsic from the interior of the UAE.
Typic Haplogypsids are the Haplogypsids that do not have have a gypsic horizon with its upper boundary within 18 cm of the soil surface. These soils do not have a lithic contact within 50 cm of the soil surface. In the United States they occur in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The gypsic horizon is a horizon in which gypsum has accumulated or been transformed to a significant extent (secondary gypsum (CaSO 4) has accumulated through more than 150 mm of soil, so that this horizon contains at least 5% more gypsum than the underlying horizon). It typically occurs as a subsurface horizon, but it may occur at the surface in some soils.
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.
Haplogypsids are the Gypsids that have no petrogypsic, natric, argillic, or calcic horizon that has an upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. Some Haplogypsids have a cambic horizon overlying the gypsic horizon. These soils are commonly very pale in color. They are not extensive in the United States. The largest concentrations in the United States are in New Mexico and Texas. The soils are more common in other parts of the world.
Gypsids are the Aridisols that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon within 100 cm of the soil surface. Accumulation of gypsum takes place initially as crystal aggregates in the voids of the soils. These aggregates grow by accretion, displacing the enclosing soil material. When the gypsic horizon occurs as a cemented impermeable layer, it is recognized as the petrogypsic horizon. Each of these forms of gypsum accumulation implies processes in the soils, and each presents a constraint to soil use. One of the largest constraints is dissolution of the gypsum, which plays havoc with structures, roads, and irrigation delivery systems. The presence of one or more of these horizons, with or without other diagnostic horizons, defines the great groups of the Gypsids. Gypsids occur in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, West Asia, and some of the most arid areas of the western part of the United States. Gypsids are on many segments of the landscape. Some of them have calcic or related horizons that overlie the gypsic horizon.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Typic Xerothents, welded. (Soil Survey of Lassen Volcanic National Park, California; by Andrew E. Conlin, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typic Xerorthents, tephra-Typic Xerorthents,
welded, complex, 2 to 50 percent slopes in the foreground, as viewed from the top of Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park, California.
General location: Painted Dunes
Landscape: Mountains
Landform: Tephra-covered lava flows
Landform position (two-dimensional): Footslope
Landform position (three-dimensional): Mountainbase
Slope range and aspect: 2 to 50 percent, north aspects
Parent material: Tephra from Cinder Cone
Elevation: 6,150 to 6,530 feet (1,876 to 1,991 meters)
Mean annual precipitation: 31 to 35 inches (787 to 889 millimeters)
Mean annual air temperature: 43 to 44 degrees F (6 degrees C)
Frost-free period: 70 to 90 days
Map Unit Composition
Typic Xerorthents, tephra component: 85 percent
Typic Xerorthents, welded component: 10 percent
Xerorthents, welded consist of very shallow and shallow, excessively drained soils that formed in tephra from Cinder Cone. These soils are on knolls on lava flows. Slopes range from 2 to 30 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 31 inches (787 millimeters), and the mean annual air temperature is about 43 degrees F. (6 degrees C).
TAXONOMIC CLASSIFICATION: Frigid, shallow Typic Xerorthent
NOTE: The horizon designation provided in the soil profile is as published in the Soil Survey Report, (p. 475-476). An alternative sequence for horizon designation: C1, C2, C3, Cqm, Cq, Cqm', C', Cq', C''1, C''2, C''3, C''4, C"5)
Depth to restrictive feature: 7 to 20 inches (17 to 51 centimeters) to welded material
Mean annual soil temperature: 45 to 47 degrees F (7 to 8 degrees C)
Period that soil moisture control section is dry: July to October (about 90 days)
Particle-size control section (weighted average): 1 percent clay and 28 percent rock fragments
Surface fragments: 80 to 90 percent gravel, 0 to 2 percent cobbles, and 0 to 1 percent stones
Welded surface crust: Discontinuous, platy, and 1 to 1.5 centimeters thick
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/las...
This photo is 180 degrees from "Desert soils of the Al Qua'a region, United Arab Emirates (south-facing)".
www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/51891219569/in/dateposted-...
As I was concentrating on photographing the opposing landscape, I could feel the wind starting to pick up. I turned around and could not believe the sight. This was my first experience with a "HABOOB"; a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current or weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in arid regions throughout the world. The tallest dunes on the horizon are over 100 feet. The estimated height of the dust cloud of fine sand is over 500 feet.
__________________________________
Foreground:
Gypsic Aquisalids from the interior of the UAE. Gypsic Aquisalids are the Aquisalids that have a gypsic or petrogypsic horizon with an upper boundary within 100 cm of the soil surface. In the Unted States, these soils occur in Texas and Colorado.
Aquisalids are the salty soils 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 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 Sebkhas 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.
Background:
A Typic Torripsamment. These areas are narrow sinuous dune ridges that form linear or roughly rectangular patterns around deflation plains and inland sabkha flats. The dunes have a relative relief of about 80m. Dune formations are variable due to multi-directional winds, and include barchanoid, transverse and star shapes. The star dunes are often higher than the surrounding dunes and form impressive and imposing features in the landscape. A white, gray or red surface veneer of fine to coarse sand and fine gravel occurs on the gentle slopes of the dunes adjacent to the sabkhas and deflation plains.
The land is used as low-density grazing. The map unit has sparse vegetation cover with Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp on the lower slopes of the dunes together with Calligonum comosum on the slopes and slip faces. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.
The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (85% AD158) in the high dunes. Other soils are Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD123), Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD143) and Gypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD135) that are confined to the deflation flats.
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...
The Polkton series consists of moderately deep, moderately well drained, very slowly permeable soils on uplands of the Triassic Basins in the Southern Piedmont. They formed in residuum weathered from Triassic siltstone, mudstone, shale, and sandstone.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, thermic Oxyaquic Vertic Hapludalfs
Polkton soils are gently sloping to moderately steep and are on ridges and side slopes. Slopes range from 2 to 25 percent. These soils formed in residuum weathered from Triassic siltstone, mudstone, shale, sandstone, or conglomerate.
In prismatic structure, the individual units are bounded by flat to rounded vertical faces. Units are distinctly longer vertically, and the faces are typically casts or molds of adjoining units. Vertices are angular or subrounded; the tops of the prisms are somewhat indistinct and normally flat. Prismatic structures are characteristic of the B horizons or subsoils. The vertical cracks result from freezing and thawing and wetting and drying as well as the downward movement of water and roots.
There are five major classes of macrostructure seen in soils: platy, prismatic, columnar, granular, and blocky. There are also structureless conditions. Some soils have simple structure, each unit being an entity without component smaller units. Others have compound structure, in which large units are composed of smaller units separated by persistent planes of weakness.
For more information about 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 an Ultisol (Humic Hapludult). (Soil scientist photo provided by New Mexico State University, Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center)
When photographing soils, a soil scientist will commonly use a knife to pick the profile face to show natural soil structure (left side of profile). Or, they may use a knife or shovel to smooth the surface (right side of the profile) which helps show change in color or horizonation.
Hapludults are the Udults that mostly formed in areas of acid rocks or sediments on surfaces that are at least of Pleistocene age. Where the soils are not cultivated, the vegetation consists almost exclusively of forest plants, either hardwood trees or conifers. Hapludults are extensive in the Southeastern United States, in the Middle Atlantic States, and on the coastal plain along the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern States east of the Mississippi River. Slopes generally are gently sloping to steep, but a few of the soils on the lowest part of the coastal plain are nearly level.
Humic Hapludults have a dark colored surface layer. They have a color value, moist, of 3 or less and a color value, dry, of 5 or less (crushed and smoothed sample) in either an Ap horizon that is 18 cm or more thick; or the surface layer after mixing of the upper 18 cm has these colors.
Some have an umbric epipedon or, if heavily limed, a mollic epipedon. Humic Hapludults are mainly in the mountains in the Southeastern United States. They are of moderate extent. The natural vegetation consisted of forest plants. Slopes range from nearly level to very steep. Many of these soils are used as cropland or forest. Some are used as pasture.
For more information about soil science, visit;
www.cemrc.org/projects/wipp-monitoring/study-design-for-t...
To learn more about describing soil horizons, visit;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlyDyQT6_WE
To learn about the Field Book for describing soils, visit;
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class...
The Cotopaxi series (foreground) consists of deep, well to somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in eolian sandy alluvium from a variety of sources. Cotopaxi soils are on dune-like topography at the edge of the larger intermountain valleys and have slopes of 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 8 inches and mean annual temperature is about 43 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, frigid Typic Torripsamments
The Cotopaxi soils typically are noncalcareous to depths of more than 60 inches but depth to uniformly calcareous material ranges from 40 to more than 60 inches. Base saturation ranges from 80 to 100 percent. Exchangeable sodium ranges from 0 to 14 percent in a majority of subhorizons of the control section. The 10- to 40-inch control section is loamy sand or sand. Rock fragments range from 0 to 15 percent but typically are less than one percent. They are normally less than 3 inches in diameter but range from 1/8 to 10 inches in diameter. The A and C horizons are neutral or mildly alkaline. Clay content is less than 12 percent and silt ranges from 0 to 15 percent. The mean annual soil temperature ranges 44 degrees to 47 degrees F., and the mean summer soil temperature ranges from 59 degrees to 64 degrees F.
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used principally as native pastureland; however, they are used for irrigated grass where spray irrigation is developed. Native vegetation is mainly blue grama, spiney muhly, short and tall rabbitbrush, and greasewood.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The San Luis Valley Area of south-central Colorado. The series is of moderate extent, about 80,000 acres.
Dune land (mid-ground) is unstable sand in ridges and intervening troughs that shifts with the wind.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SPACE_CITY.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#cotopaxi
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Soil Survey Manual, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil’s agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa, discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In the late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being poured on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area. Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybeans, until then a temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand. Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of Eucalyptus and Pinus, but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
Soils of the cerrado are in the order of Oxisols. Oxisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest, 15-25 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are classified as ferralsols in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources; some oxisols have been previously classified as laterite soils. The main processes of soil formation of Oxisols are weathering, humification and pedoturbation due to animals. These processes produce the characteristic soil profile. They are defined as soils containing at all depths no more than 10 percent weatherable minerals, and low cation exchange capacity. Oxisols are always a red or yellowish color, due to the high concentration of iron(III) and aluminium oxides and hydroxides. In addition they also contain quartz and kaolin, plus small amounts of other clay minerals and organic matter.
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Photo courtesy of EAD-Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. www.ead.gov.ae/
The land use of Abu Dhabi has seen considerable changes since the discovery of oil. Previously, most people had essentially a nomadic existence with a few more permanent centers located at the oases at Al Ain and Liwa where the growing of dates was the major activity. Along the coastline small settlements existed on pearling, fishing and an active trade with neighboring nations. The desert was the home of the Bedouin who traveled the sands, seeking grazing for their herds of camel and their flocks of sheep.
One of the biggest technical challenges facing agriculture in Abu Dhabi Emirate is the scarcity of good quality water to use for irrigation. In its 2007 Sustainability report, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi identified the need to reduce water consumption by nearly 25% over the following 5 years. Soil quality interacts strongly with water use efficiency of irrigation and so understanding the issues related to water resources is a key factor in understanding the soil properties important to farming in Abu Dhabi.
Areas with steep slopes make cultivation and water management difficult for field crops as well as reducing the efficiency of farming operations. Slope is only prohibitive to flood irrigation practices. Leveling of dunes is used to overcome this problem. Sprinkler irrigation may be considered on sloping ground.
The soils are dominantly in the Moenkopie, Myton, and Skos series with Rock outcrops.
The Moenkopie series (loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Lithic Torriorthents) consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained soils that formed in alluvium from sandstone and shale. Moenkopie soils are on mesas, plateaus, hills, and structural benches. Slopes are 0 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 52 degrees F.
These soils are used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Vegetation is blue grama, galleta, alkali sacaton, threeawn, fourwing saltbush, snakeweed, and sand dropseed, and juniper, algerita, cliffrose, and widely spaced pinyon pine. They are in Northern Arizona and southern Utah. The series is of large extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MOENKOPIE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#moenkopie
The Myton series (loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Typic Torriorthents) consists of deep and very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils on hillslopes and mountain slopes. Myton soils formed in colluvium derived from sandstone and shale. Slopes range from 30 to 70 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 8 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees
F.
These soils are used mainly for livestock grazing. Vegetation is blackbrush, shadscale, saline wildrye, and galleta. They are in southeastern Utah. The series is of moderate extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MYTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#myton
The Skos series (loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Lithic Ustic Torriorthents) consists of very shallow to shallow, well drained, moderately permeable soils that formed in residuum and colluvium from interbedded sandstone, siltstone and shale. Skos soils occur on structural benches, ridges, and hillsides on structural benches and have slopes of 4 to 60 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 12 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 50 degrees F.
They are used as rangeland and wildlife habitat. Potential vegetation is Utah juniper, pinyon, blackbrush, and Mormon-tea. They are in southeast Utah. The series is of moderate extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SKOS.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#skos
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
In prismatic structure, the individual units are bounded by flat to rounded vertical faces. Units are distinctly longer vertically, and the faces are typically casts or molds of adjoining units. Vertices are angular or subrounded; the tops of the prisms are somewhat indistinct and normally flat. Prismatic structures are characteristic of the B horizons or subsoils. The vertical cracks result from freezing and thawing and wetting and drying as well as the downward movement of water and roots.
There are five major classes of macrostructure seen in soils: platy, prismatic, columnar, granular, and blocky. There are also structureless conditions. Some soils have simple structure, each unit being an entity without component smaller units. Others have compound structure, in which large units are composed of smaller units separated by persistent planes of weakness.
For more information about 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:
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of Nagseo soil in Korea.
Landscape: Nagseo soils are developed in residuum from schist and some gneiss in mountainous areas. Bedrocks occur within 50 cm of the surface.
The Nagseo series are members of the loamy-skeletal, mixed, mesic family of Lithic Udorthents [Leptic Regosols (Dystric Skeletic) classified by WRB].
These soils have ochric epipedons. Depth of the Nagseo soils is about 30 cm and ranges from 25 to 50 cm over hard rock. Base saturation is less than 60 percent and the reaction is very strongly acid throughout the profiles. Unweathered schist fragments comprise more than 50 percent of the control section. White and yellow micas are common. A horizons are reddish brown or brown channery loam or silt loam. C horizons are red, reddish brown, or yellowish red very channery loam or silt loam.
For more information about soils in Korea, visit:
Figure 3-27. Redoximorphic features that consist of a redox concentration, as an iron mass (reddish area along ped surface) and an iron depletion (light-colored area surrounding the root channel in ped interior). (Soil Survey Manual, USDA Handbook No. 18; issued March 2017).
For more information about the major principles and practices needed for making and using soil surveys and for assembling and using related soils data (Soil Survey Manual), visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
Note the clay and finer soil particles coating the pore wall and fine root running the length of the pore. The lighter soil color along the exterior of the pore is formed by stripping of iron as water concentrates and moves downward carrying away iron in solution ("redoximorphic” process).
Redoximorphic features consist of color patterns in a soil that are caused by loss or gain of pigment compared to the matrix color, formed by oxidation/reduction of iron and/or manganese coupled with their removal, translocation, or accrual; or a soil matrix color controlled by the presence of iron. The composition and responsible formation processes for a soil color or color pattern must be known or inferred before it can be described as redoximorphic.
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-...
A representative soil profile and landscape of the Cegin 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 slowly permeable seasonally waterlogged fine silty and clayey soils. Some fine silty and fine loamy soils with slowly permeable subsoils and slight seasonal waterlogging on slopes. Well drained fine loamy soils over rock in places.
They are classified as Dystric Stagnosols by the WRB soil classification system. (www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf)
For more information about this soil, visit:
Soil profile: Typical pedon of a Snaggletooth soil in an area of Snaggletooth-Carrizo association, 1 to 8 percent slopes. (Interim Report for the Soil Survey of Chemehuevi Wash Off-Highway Vehicle Area, California; by Leon Lato, Carrie-Ann Houdeshell, and Heath McAllister, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Typical area of a Snaggletooth soil. Snaggletooth soils are on fan remnants. Slopes range from 1 to 4 percent. These soils formed in alluvium from granite. Elevations are 285 to 500 meters (about 900 to 1600 feet). The climate is arid with hot, dry summers and warm, dry winters.
The Snaggletooth series consists of very deep, well drained soils The mean annual precipitation is about 100 millimeters (about 4 inches) and the mean annual air temperature is about 24 degrees C (about 75 degrees F).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, hyperthermic Typic Calciargids
Soil moisture control section: usually dry throughout, rarely moist in some part during summer or winter. The soils have a typic-aridic soil moisture regime.
Soil temperature: 22 to 26.7 degrees C (72 to 80 degrees F).
Depth to argillic horizon: 2 to 50 centimeters.
Depth to base of argillic horizon: 150 to 200 centimeters.
Depth to calcic horizon: 2 to 50 centimeters.
Organic matter: 0 to 0.5 percent
USE AND VEGETATION: Snaggletooth soils are used for recreation and wildlife habitat. The present vegetation is mainly creosote bush and burrobush.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Lower Colorado Desert of southeastern California, U.S.A.; MLRA 31. These soils are of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/california/CA6...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SNAGGLETOOTH.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A soil profile and landscape of Birch Creek soil in Idaho. The Birchcreek series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in alluvium, colluvium, and residuum derived from mica schist and quartzite or from andesite. Birchcreek soils are on mountains. Slopes are 4 to 55 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 360 mm and the mean annual temperature is about 5.6 degrees C.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Clayey-skeletal, smectitic, frigid Typic Argixerolls
Soil moisture: Usually moist in the moisture control section in winter and spring, dry in summer and fall; xeric moisture regime that borders on aridic.
Mean annual soil temperature: 6 to 8 degrees C.
Mollic epipedon thickness: 25 to 46 cm; includes the Bt1 and Bt2 horizons.
Depth to bedrock: 50 to 100 cm to a lithic contact.
Reaction: Neutral or slightly alkaline.
Particle-size control section - Clay content: Averages 40 to 50 percent.
Rock fragments: 45 to 60 percent, mainly cobbles and gravel in the upper part and cobbles and stones in the lower part. Lithology of fragments is metamorphic rocks such as mica schist and quartzite or volcanic rock such as andesite.
USE AND VEGETATION: Birchcreek soils are used for livestock grazing. The vegetation is mountain big sagebrush, low sagebrush, bluebunch wheatgrass, and Idaho fescue. Some areas support stands of singleleaf pinyon and Utah juniper.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern Idaho and eastern Nevada. These soils are moderately extensive. The original series concept is in MLRA 25 in Idaho, while the main acreage occurs in MLRA 28B in Nevada.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BIRCHCREEK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#birchcreek
For additional information about Idaho soils, please visit:
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/97d01af9d4554b9097cb0a477e04...
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Crider series; the State Soil of Kentucky.
Landscape: Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco, and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places.
archive.org/details/usda-general-soil-map-soil-survey-of-...
A state soil is a soil that has special significance to a particular state. Each state in the United States has selected a state soil, twenty of which have been legislatively established. These “Official State Soils” share the same level of distinction as official state flowers and birds. Also, representative soils have been selected for the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
The Crider soils, the state soil of Kentucky, are extensive making up about 500,000 acres in Kentucky and occurring in 35 counties in the state. Most areas are used for crops or pasture. Corn, small grain, soybeans, tobacco, and hay are the main crops. Crider soils are highly productive. Many acres of these soils are prime farmland. The Crider series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands.
Crider soils formed in a mantle of loess and the underlying limestone residuum. Slopes range from 0 to 20 percent. They are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. The average annual precipitation is about 48 inches, and the average annual temperature is about 57 degrees F. The Crider series was established in Caldwell County, Kentucky, in 1957. It is named after a community in the county.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: Windy Creek soils are coarse-silty, mixed, active, subgelic Typic Histoturbels. Windy Creek soils have moderately deep mixed loess and alluvium over permafrost. (Soil Survey of Greater Nenana Area, Alaska; by Dennis Mulligan, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: Windy Creek soils occur on alluvial fans and terraces. Vegetation is stunted black spruce (P. mariana) forest with an understory of mixed shrubs that include Labrador tea (L. groenlandicum), blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), lingonberry (vaccinium vitis-idea) and various willows (Salix spp.) with a thick ground cover of peat mosses (sphagnum spp.).
Depth class: moderately deep
Drainage class: poorly drained
Parent material: loess and alluvium
Landform: alluvial fans
Slopes: 0 to 2 percent
Mean annual precipitation: about 11 inches, 280 mm
Mean annual temperature: about 25 degrees F., -4 degrees C.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty, mixed, active, acid, subgelic Typic Histoturbels
Particle-size control (section weighted average):
Percent clay in the control section: 5 to 13 percent
Soil moisture regime: aquic
Mean annual soil temperature: 26 degrees F., 50 cm
Thickness of organic materials: 8 to 11 inches, 20 to 28 cm
Texture of the loess and alluvium mantle: silt loam or silt
Texture of the permafrost substratum: permanently frozen material
Percent clay in the loess and alluvium mantle: 5 to 13 percent
Thickness of histic epipedon 8 to 11 inches, 20 to 28 cm
Thickness of redoximorphic concentrations: from 11 to 72 inches, 27 to 183 cm.
Thickness of redoximorphic depletions: from 11 to 72 inches, 27 to 183 cm.
Thickness of cryoturbation and gelic materials: from 11 to 72 inches, 27 to 183 cm.
Depth to Permafrost: from 11 to 38 inches, 28 to 99 cm.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for recreation and wildlife habitat. The native vegetation includes stunted black spruce forest.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 229, Interior Alaska lowlands the series is of limited extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/alaska/AK655/0...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WINDY_CREEK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
There are a number of areas where there is a sand veneer overlying alluvial materials, particularly along the western edge of the alluvial plains. The sand is rarely more than a few meters thick, and small sief and barchan forms are common.
The Atsion series are very deep, poorly drained soils with moderately rapid or rapid permeability above 40 inches and moderately slow to rapid below 40 inches. They formed in sandy marine sediments with slopes of 0 to 2 percent,
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, siliceous, mesic Aeric Alaquods
USE: Mostly in woods, but some areas are used for blueberries and cranberries. Wooded area are mostly pitch pine mixed with black gum and red maple. Undergrowth consists of highbush blueberries, sweet pepperbush, sheep laurel, and greenbriar.
DISTRIBUTION: Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and New York. EXTENT: Large, more than 100,000 acres
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Suffolk County, New York, 1970
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/A/ATSION.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Soil profile: The Breakneck series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils. They formed in residuum affected by soil creep in the upper part, and weathered from low-grade metasedimentary rocks, primarily metasandstone. (Soil Survey of Graham County, North Carolina; by Brian Wood and Southern Blue Ridge Soil Survey Office, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: A high mountain grassy bald on Huckleberry Knob in an area of Breakneck-Pullback complex, windswept, 15 to 30 percent slopes, very rocky. Areas such as this are highly desirable for wildlife and were once used as summer pasture.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, isotic, frigid Typic Humudepts
Breakneck soils are on strongly sloping to very steep summits and side slopes in the high elevations of the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B. Slope ranges from 8 to 95 percent. Solum thickness and depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. The content of rock fragments is less than 35 percent by volume throughout. Reaction is extremely acid to strongly acid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the acreage is in public ownership and is used for watershed protection, recreation, and wildlife habitat. In areas higher than about 5,400 feet, red spruce and fraser fir are the dominant trees. At the lower elevations, northern red oak, chestnut oak, American beech, yellow birch, black cherry, sugar maple, eastern hemlock, and yellow buckeye are common trees. Common understory plants are serviceberry, striped maple, American chestnut sprouts, silverbell, pin cherry, rhododendron, flame azalea, and blueberry. Common forbs are hay-scented fern, woodfern, New York fern, Solomons seal, yellow mandarin, and trillium. A small acreage is covered by heath balds. These balds are vegetated with rhododendron, mountain laurel, blueberry, flame azalea, hawthorn, and mountain ash. Vegetation ranges for spruce/fur to northern hard woods, heath and grass balds.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Higher elevations of the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, MLRA 130B of Tennessee and North Carolina. This series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/north_carolina...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BREAKNECK.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
In 2006-2007 the total cultivated agricultural land under citizen’s farms in Abu Dhabi was 70,375ha and there were 40,494 wells. Farms are being developed in dense clusters with typically two wells with limited distance between them. Such farm development has forced groundwater resources to become more stressed in terms of decreasing aquifer water levels and groundwater quality.
The Al Ain area has grown faster than the Western Region but overall farmed area has decreased by about 5% since 2004-2005.
Similarly, the maximum number of farms under cultivation in 2004-2006 was 23,704. Changes in cropped areas and number of farms may be the result of changing government policy towards subsidized agriculture, declining groundwater level and quality, increasing pumping costs.
Rhodes grass, the main forage crop capable of remaining productive and high-yielding for 5 to 10 years, has been widely adopted because of its high salinity tolerance and high government subsidies. It has replaced alfalfa as the main forage crop because most new farms were developed over brackish groundwater areas. Typically it is irrigated by drip irrigation.
This farmed area is in the Typic Torripsamments consociation, rolling rises and flats. This map unit consists of undulating to rolling rises formed on low transverse dunes and sand sheets. Some areas of deflation plains and closed depression within the dune fields have calcareous sandstone fragments and may have calcareous sandstone or petrogypsic layers at variable depth.
The map unit occurs as scattered polygons in the eastern part of Abu Dhabi to the north of Al Wijan settlement and extends to the Dubai border. Polygons range in size from 47ha to 12,372ha. The unit is used for forestry, farming and low-density grazing. Dominant vegetation species in this map unit include Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.
The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (75% AD158) in the rolling to steep hills dunes. Other soils encountered in the area are Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic, lithic phase (10% AD160), Typic Haplocalcids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (10% AD103) and Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD143), all these soils more or less all occupying the interdunal parts or the deflation parts of the unit.
The main constraints to irrigated agriculture in this map unit are low transverse sand dunes and sandy nature of the soils that limits moisture and nutrient retention.
For more information about agriculture in this area, visit ICBA;
ICBA--International Center for Biosaline Agriculture:
Vision: Sustainable livelihoods and food security in marginal environments
Mission:
To work in partnership to deliver agricultural and water scarcity solutions in marginal environments
Strategic objectives:
- Promote sustainable management of natural resources
- Provide climate change solutions
- Enhance agricultural value chains
- Advance sustainable food, feed & biofuel agri-technologies
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Its surface elevation varies from 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the southwest to around sea level in the northeast. The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft), interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is of a reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar. There are also brackish salt flats in some areas, such as the Umm al Samim area on the desert's eastern edge. Along the middle length of the desert there are a number of raised, hardened areas of calcium carbonate, gypsum, marl, or clay that were once the site of shallow lakes.
These lakes existed during periods from 6,000 to 5,000 years ago and 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. The lakes are thought to have formed as a result of "cataclysmic rainfall" similar to present-day monsoon rains and most probably lasted for only a few years. Evidence suggests that the lakes were home to a variety of flora and fauna. Fossil remains indicate the presence of several animal species, such as hippopotamus, water buffalo, and long-horned cattle. The lakes also contained small snails, ostracods, and when conditions were suitable, freshwater clams. Deposits of calcium carbonate and opal phytoliths indicate the presence of plants and algae.
There is also evidence of human activity dating from 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, including chipped flint tools, but no actual human remains have been found. The region is classified as "hyper-arid", with typical annual rainfall of less than 3 centimetres (1.2 in). Daily maximum temperatures average at 47 °C (117 °F) and can reach as high as 51 °C (124 °F). Fauna includes arachnids (e.g. scorpions) and rodents, while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, the Rub' al Khali falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands. The Asiatic cheetahs, once widespread in Saudi Arabia, are regionally extinct from the desert.
Geologically, the Empty Quarter is one of the most oil-rich sites in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand dunes.[citation needed] Sheyba, at the northeastern edge of the Rub' al Khali, is a major light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
The Icknuun series consists of very deep, very poorly drained soils that formed in organic material interlayered with thin strata of mineral material. Icknuun soils are in depressions on till plains. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Euic Fluvaquentic Cryohemists
USE AND VEGETATION: Wildlife habitat and recreation. The natural vegetation is mainly sedges, sphagnum moss, bog birch, Labrador tea, and other low-growing shrubs and forbs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Cook Inlet-Susitna Lowlands. The series is of small extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/I/ICKNUUN.html
For geographic distribution, visit:
Typic Haplocalcids, sandy-skeletal, mixed, hyperthermic (Soil AD105) are sandy with greater than 35% coarse fragments and with a marginal calcic horizon occurring in the subsoil. They occur on almost level deflation plains and pediments predominantly in eastern parts of the Emirate. They are typically well drained or somewhat excessively drained and have rapid or very rapid permeability. The high gravel contents of these soils limit their suitability for irrigated agriculture.
These soils remain as barren land or in some places are used for low intensity grazing by camel, sheep or goats. They frequently have less than 5% vegetation cover of Cornulaca arabica, Cornulaca monacantha, Cyperus conglomeratus, Dipterygium glaucum, Haloxylon salicornicum, Prosopis cineraria, Tribulus omanense or Zygophyllum spp.
These soils are confined to eastern parts of the Emirate where they occur on pediments and plains associated with rock outcrops. The soil has been identified as a component of one map unit occurring east of Jabal Hafit.
Plate 5: Typical soil profile and associated landscape for Typic Haplocalcids, sandy-skeletal, mixed, hyperthermic (Soil AD105).
Soil profile: Profile of Lakeland sand. Lakeland soils are very deep, are excessively drained, and formed in thick beds of sands. The thickness of the sand exceeds 80 inches. Lakeland soils are in nearly level to steep areas of the Coastal Plain uplands and on side slopes. (Soil Survey of Washington County, Florida; by Milton Martinez, Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Landscape: A paved road in an area of Lakeland sand, 8 to 12 percent slopes. Loamy fill is needed from an offsite location before paving in areas of the Lakeland soils. This map unit is not suited to cultivated crops because it is too droughty. It is very limited as a site for recreational
development because it is too sandy.
Lakeland soils formed in thick beds of eolian or marine and/or fluvio-marine sands in the Southern Coastal Plain MLRA (133A), the Carolina and Georgia Sandhills (MLRA 137), the Eastern Gulf Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 152A) and the Atlantic Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 153A).Near the type location, the mean annual temperature is about 67 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation is about 52 inches. Slopes are dominantly from 0 to 12 percent but can range to 85 percent in dissected areas.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Thermic, coated Typic Quartzipsamments
Thickness of the sand exceeds 80 inches. Silt plus clay in the 10 to 40-inch control section ranges from 5 to 10 percent. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout except where the surface has been limed.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for peanuts, watermelons, peaches, corn, tobacco, and improved pasture. The natural vegetation consists of blackjack oak, turkey oak, post oak; scattered long leaf pine with an understory of creeping bluestem, sandy bluestem, lopsided indiangrass, hairy panicum, fringeleaf paspalum, and native annual forbs.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain and sand hills of the thermic belt from Mississippi to Virginia. The series is of large extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/florida/washin...
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/L/LAKELAND.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
A representative landscape of the Sharjah soil. The Sharjah series is a very deep soil formed in eolian sands UAE (NE011). Ghaf (Prosopis cineraria), a flowering tree, holds great promise for combating desertification and improving soil fertility in arid environments thanks to its unique qualities, long-term research by the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) suggests. (www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/50613671957/)
Taxonomic classification: Typic Torripsamments, carbonatic, hyperthermic
Diagnostic subsurface horizon described in this profile is: None.
Texture is dominated by a mixture of fine sand and very fine sand of eolian origin, with almost no particles larger than medium sand. The layers often exhibit some cross-bedding, reflective of the eolian origin of the soil. Very fine sand makes up 25 to 49% of the sands in the particle-size control section and there are no particles of gravel-size. The EC (1:1) is generally less than 0.5 dS/m throughout the profile. The pH (1:1) ranges from about 7.0 to 8.5 throughout.
The A horizon is generally about 20 cm thick, but ranges for 10 to 25 cm. Hue is 7.5YR or 10YR, value is 4 to 7, and chroma is 4 to 6. Texture is fine sand or loamy fine sand. Some profiles, particularly where the dunes are unstable and constantly shifting, have been described with C horizons at the surface.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value 4 to 7, and chroma 3 to 6. Texture is fine sand or loamy fine sand.
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
On the western side of the Hajar mountains, there are inliers of Cretaceous to Neogene (Miocene) rocks. These inliers are mainly in the southern half of the area, and although usually within a few kilometers of the mountain front, can be found up to 20 km to the west of the mountains. They occur as isolated rises and hills surrounded by alluvium and sand dunes. The different kinds of bedrock in the mountains influence the composition of alluvial fans on both the east and west sides of the mountain range.
An almost never-ending sea of sand in the Umm Al Zumoul area of southeastern UAE.
This extensive region comprises older stable north-west/south-east linear dunes and intervening deflation flats. Occasional nested barchanoid dunes occur where more recent wind-blown sands have accumulated. The region includes broad, gently inclined sand ramps which may display a partial cover of fine lag gravels. The dark color in the basin is from chocolate-colored gravel.
Map Unit: Typic Torripsamments consociation, very high dunes and flats
This map unit consists of narrow sinuous dune ridges that form linear or roughly rectangular patterns around deflation plains and inland sabkha flats. The dunes have a relative relief of about 80m. Dune formations are variable due to multi-directional winds, and include barchanoid, transverse and star shapes. The star dunes are often higher than the surrounding dunes and form impressive and imposing features in the landscape. A white, gray or red surface veneer of fine to coarse sand and fine gravel occurs on the gentle slopes of the dunes adjacent to the sabkhas and deflation plains.
Small areas of sabkha flat are included within this map unit. The map unit occurs as linear polygons in the south-eastern part of the area adjacent to Oman and Saudi Arabian border. Polygons range in size from 60ha to 94,557ha. The land is used as low-density grazing. The map unit has sparse vegetation cover with Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp on the lower slopes of the dunes together with Calligonum comosum on the slopes and slip faces. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.
The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (85% AD158) in the high dunes. Other soils are Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD123), Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD143) and Gypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD135) that are confined to the deflation flats. Steep, high dunes are the major constraint to land use in this map unit.
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
The agriculture of Brazil is historically one of the principal bases of Brazil's economy. While its initial focus was on sugarcane, Brazil eventually became the world's largest exporter of coffee, soybeans, beef, and crop-based ethanol. The success of agriculture during the Estado Novo (New State), with Getúlio Vargas, led to the expression, "Brazil, breadbasket of the world"
As of 2009, Brazil had about 106,000,000 hectares (260,000,000 acres) of undeveloped fertile land – a territory larger than the combined area of France and Spain. According to a 2008 IBGE study, despite the world financial crisis, Brazil had record agricultural production, with growth of 9.1%, principally motivated by favorable weather. The production of grains in the year reached an unprecedented 145,400,000 tons. That record output employed an additional 4.8% in planted area, totaling 65,338,000 hectares and producing $148 billion Reals ($28 billion U.S. dollars). The principal products were corn (13.1% growth) and soy (2.4% growth).
The southern one-half to two-thirds of Brazil has a semi-temperate climate, higher rainfall, more fertile soil, more advanced technology and input use, adequate infrastructure and more experienced farmers. This region produces most of Brazil's grains, oilseeds (and exports).
The drought-ridden northeast region and Amazon basin lack well-distributed rainfall, good soil, adequate infrastructure and development capital. Although mostly occupied by subsistence farmers, both regions are increasingly important as exporters of forest products, cocoa and tropical fruits. Central Brazil contains substantial areas of grassland. Brazilian grasslands are far less fertile than those of North America and are generally suited only for grazing.