Soil Classification

Iactors |nvo|ved |n so|| format|on from parent mater|a|s

C||mate
O Climate is perhaps the most influential of the four factors acting on
parent materials in terms of its geographic scale.
O %o principle climatic variables influencing soil formation:
4 Effective precipitation
4 %emperature
O Both these factors affect the rates of physical, chemical, and
biological processes.
O Effective precipitation
4 Water is essential for all the major chemical eathering
reactions
4 %o be effective, the ater needs to penetrate the regolith
O %he greater the depth of penetration, the greater the depth of
eathering and soil development. Hoever,
4 %oo much ater ill percolate through the forming soil,
transporting soluble and suspended materials from the supper
to loer layers, helping stimulate eathering reactions and
helping in the formation of soil horizons. But at the same time
it may carry aay soluble materials in drainage ater.
4 %oo little ater also impacts on soil formation and in
determining the characteristics of soils in dry areas. Soluble
salts are not leached from these soils can build up, affecting
plant groth at some point.
O %he availability of ater in soil is influenced not only by the total
precipitation measured annually but also by four factors:
4 Seasonal distribution - Rainfall/snofall distributed evenly
throughout the year ill lead to less soil leaching and erosion
than in areas here you have monsoons - rainy seasons
alternating ith dry seasons.
4 %emperature and evaporation - Less ater is available in
hot climates here evaporation from soils and vegetation is
much higher than in cool climates.
4 %opography - Water falling on a steep slope ill run
donhill so rapidly that only a small portion ill be absorbed
into the soil. %herefore, even in situations here they receive
the same amount of precipitation, concave or level soils ill
absorb more ater than adjacent slopes.
4 !ermeability - %he texture of the soil, and the amount of
organic matter contained in the soil, ill affect the absorption
of ater into a soil. A sandy soil ill permeate ater then
infiltrate more easily and rapidly than a clay soil.
@emperature
O For every 10C rise in temperature, the rates of biochemical
reactions more than double.
O %emperature and moisture influence the organic matter content of
soil through their effects on both plant groth and microbial
decomposition.
|ota
rgan|c matter accumu|at|on
O Vegetation both protects against erosion and contributes to the
build-up of organic matter in the soil. Distinct profile beneath
grasslands versus forests.
4 A horizons under grasslands are deeper than those under a
forest (much of the organic matter added to a grassland soil
is from grass root systems hereas in forests it comes from
the surface deposits of fallen leaves and other materials.
4 Forest soils are also more acidic, inhibiting the activities of
some soil organisms.
4 %ypical grassland soil is dominated by bacteria hereas a
forest soil is dominated by fungi.
4 You ill also see E horizons in forest soils resulting from the
organic acids produced by fungi and you ont find an E
horizon under grasslands
Cat|on cyc||ng by trees
O Natural vegetation can accelerate the release of nutrient elements
from minerals by biochemical eathering.
O Different types of vegetation (trees) impact on soils differently.
4 Litter from a coniferous tree (pines, firs, hemlocks, spruces)
recycle only small quantities of calcium, magnesium, and
potassium compared to litter from a deciduous tree (maple,
oak, beach poplar).
4 Conifer roots take up less of these nutrients as ell.
4 As a result, soil acidity often develops more strongly in the
surface horizons under a coniferous vegetation than under a
deciduous vegetation.
o|e of an|ma|s
O Large animals contribute to soil formation by burroing into the
soil, mixing materials from the various horizons.
O %heir burros also promote the movement of both air and ater
into the subsurface layers.
O Old animal burros become filled ith soil materials from the
overlying A horizon, creating ribbons of materials from one horizon
in another, a profile feature called .rotovinas.
arthworms and ants
O %hese mix the soil as they burro and build mounds, moving soil
materials from one horizon to another.
O Earthorms also ingest both organic residues and soil particles.
O %hey aerate the soil.
O %he mixing activities of animals is called pedoturbation.
uman act|v|t|es
O Finally, e influence soil formation. We clear the vegetative cover,
till the land, irrigate fields, transform the land for other uses such
as urbanization and mining operations.
O And e also do alter the soils on a very small scale - golf greens
and certain athletic fields.
@opography
@he topograph|ca| sett|ng may e|ther hasten or retard the work of c||mat|c forces
O Steep slopes generally encourage rapid soil loss by erosion and
allo less ater to be absorbed into the soil, sloing don soil
formation.
O In sales and depressions, here runoff ater tends to accumulate,
the regolith is usually more deeply eathered and the soil profile
development is usually more advanced.
o||s common|y occur together |n a |andscape |n a sequence ca||ed a catena
O Each member of a catena occupies a characteristic topographic
position.
O Each exhibits properties that reflect the influence of topography.
O A toposequen.e is a type of catena in hich differences among
the soils result almost entirely from the influence of topography
because these soils share the same parent material and similar
conditions regarding climate, vegetation, and time.
O %hese occur, for example, don hillsides.
@opograph|ca| factors |nf|uenc|ng the format|on of so||s
O Slope aspe.t - soils of south-facing slopes tend to be loer in
organic matter and not as deeply eathered as north-facing slopes
due to higher levels of absorbance of solar energy and loer
moisture levels.
O ntera.tion with vegetation - topography often interacts ith
vegetation. You get transition zones of vegetation as you move up a
hillside (such as a mountain side).
O !arent materials intera.tion - a diversity of soils can occur
here sedimentary rock is tilted to the surface. %he different layers
eather differently often resulting in ridges consisting of resistant
sandstone and valleys underlain ith more eatherable limestone.
@|me
Soils take time to form - often hundreds of thousands of years depending
upon the conditions.
O #ates of weathering - a `young or `mature soil refers to the
degree of eathering and profile development. Sometimes a soil
can develop relatively rapidly.
4 In some cases, dramatic mineralogical, structural, and colour
change can occur from months to a fe years here certain
sulphid-containing materials are first exposed to air -
excavation, sediment dredging, or etland drainage.
4 Organic matter may accumulate to form an A horizon in a
decade or to.
4 A B horizon might form ithin a fe centuries.

O hronosequen.e - but most soils really develop so sloly that it
is not possible to directly measure time-related changes in their
formation.
4 %herefore soil scientists use indirect measures - such as
carbon dating, the presence of fossils and human artifacts -
to measure the development of a soil.
4 Soil scientists also use chronosequence as a means of
assessing soil formation.
4 Chronosequence is a set of soils that share a common
community of organisms, climate, parent materials, and slop,
BU% differ in terms of the length of time that the materials
have been subjected to eathering and soil formation.
4 E.g. A series of alluvial terraces (along the Ottaa River).