Soil As A Resource

SOIL AS A RESOURCE
SOIL AS A RESOURCE
• Soil is an essential resource especially
for the production of the major portion
of our food.
• Soils vary in their suitability not only for
agriculture but also for construction
and other purposes.
• However, soil erosion is a significant
and expensive problem in an increasing
number of places as human activities
disturb more and more land.
Soil Formation
What is Soil for Engineering Geologists?
• Engineering Geologists define soil as a very broadly to include all
unconsolidated material overlying the bedrock.
What is Soil for Scientist?

• Scientist use the term soil to those materials capable of supporting
plant growth.
• It also implies little transportation away from the site at which the soil
formed.
Soil Formation
• Regolith is the loose material on the lunar surface, it encompasses all
unconsolidated material at the surface, fertile or not.
• Sediment indicates matter that has been transported and redeposited
by wind, water, or ice.
• Climate, topography, the composition of the material from which the
soil is formed, the activity of organisms, and time govern a soil’s final
composition.
• Soil is also produced by weathering.
Weathering
• Weathering is the breaking down or dissolving of rocks and
minerals on Earths surface.
• Weathering encompasses a variety of chemical, physical, and
biological processes acting to break down rocks and
minerals.
• Weathering is often divided into the processes of mechanical
weathering, chemical weathering and biological weathering.
Mechanical Weathering
• also called as Physical Weathering.
• is the physical breakup of rocks without changes in the rocks’ composition.
Chemical Weathering
• involves the breakdown of minerals by chemical reaction with water, with
other chemicals dissolved in water, or with gases in the air.
Biological Weathering
• disintegration of rocks due to the action of plants, animals and
microorganism.
Soil Profile
• Blanket of soil between bedrock and atmosphere is the
formation resulted from mechanical, chemical, and biological
weathering, together with the accumulation of decaying
remains from organisms living on the land and any input
from the atmosphere.
• The cross section of this soil blanket reveals a series of zones
of different colors, compositions, and physical properties.
Soil Horizon
O horizon - consisting wholly of organic
matter, whether living or decomposed
growing plants, decaying leaves, and so
on.
A horizon – located below O horizon

which is consists of the most intensively
weathered rock material, being the zone
most exposed to surface processes,
mixed with organic debris from above.
Soil Horizon
E horizon – located below the A horizon, is
also known as the zone of leaching. Fine
grained minerals, such as clays, may also
be washed downward through this zone.
B horizon - is also known as the zone of

accumulation. It contain relatively high
concentrations of iron and aluminum
oxides, clay minerals, and, in drier climates,
even soluble minerals such as calcite. B
Soil Horizon
C horizon – located below the B horizon,
is a zone consisting principally of very
coarsely broken-up bedrock and little
else. This horizon does not resemble our
usual idea of soil at all.
Chemical and Physical Properties of Soils
Soil Color
• Soils rich in organic matter tend to be black or brown, while those poor in
organic matter are paler in color, often white or gray.
Soil Texture
• related to the sizes of fragments in the soil.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes three size components:
 sand (grain diameters 2−0.05 mm)
 silt (0.05−0.002 mm)
 clay (less than .002 mm)
• Loam is the soil that is a mixture of all three particle sizes in similar
proportions (10 to 30% clay, the balance nearly equal amounts of
sand and silt).
Soil Structure
• relates to the soil’s tendency to form lumps or clods of soil particles.
• Peds from the Latin root pedo- meaning “soil”, is the term use for
clumps.
• Soil consisting of very large peds with large cracks between them may
be a poor growing medium for small plants with fine roots.
Soil Classification
• indicate something of a soil’s composition and perhaps its
origins, which in turn may have implications for its suitability
for agriculture or construction, or its vulnerability to
degradation.
• early soil classification schemes emphasized compositional
differences among soils and thus principally reflected the
effects of chemical weathering
• Pedalfer comes from the prefix pedo - and the Latin words for
aluminum (alumium) and iron (ferrum). Pedalfer soils were seen as
characteristic of more humid regions.
• Pedocal is for the soil of a dry climate.
• Pedalfer and pedocal can be used generally to indicate, respectively,
more and less extensively leached soils.
• The U.S. comprehensive soil classification, known as the Seventh
Approximation, has twelve major categories, which are subdivided
through five more levels of classification into a total of some 12,000
soil series.
Soils and Human Activities
Lateritic Soil
• Lateritic soil is common to many less-developed nations and
poses special agricultural challenges.
• Lateritic soils develop in tropical climates with high
temperatures and heavy rainfall is severely leached.
• Lateritic soil may contain very little besides the insoluble
aluminum and iron compounds.
Two disadvantages of lateritic soil in lush tropical rainforests:
1. The highly leached characteristic of lateritic soils is a disadvantage.
2. The second problem is associated with the term laterite itself, which is
derived from the Latin for “brick.”
Wetland Soils
• The soils of wetlands tend to be rich in accumulated organic matter, reduced
because the decaying organic matter consumes dissolved oxygen, and soft
• Wetlands have not always been properly appreciated for many of these
swampy areas have been drained for farmland or for development, or simply
to provide water wanted elsewhere for irrigation.

Soil As A Resource

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Soil As A Resource

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Soil As A Resource

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SOIL AS A RESOURCE

What is Soil for Scientist?

A horizon – located below O horizon

B horizon - is also known as the zone of

You might also like