Soil Introduction
What is name for a layer of a soil profile?
Soil horizon
What is the name for the soil characteristic that is defined as the percent of the different soil particle sizes in the soil?
texture
What is the name for the physical and chemical breakdown of particles?
What is the most common soil order in Illinois and the great plains?
Mollisols
What is the makeup of the optimal soil? (percent of each component)
25% air
25% water
5% OM
45% Minerals
What are the three sizes of soil particles from largest to smallest?
Sand, silt, clay
Name the three main types of rock
Igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary
What is the name for a three dimensional unit of soil?
pedon
Name the 5 major soil profile horizons
O, A, B, C, R
Massive, columnar, granular, and blocky are examples of what soil characteristic?
Name the three categories of parent material
Organic material, residual material, transported material
What is the most specific soil grouping usually named after the place where it was first discovered?
Soil series
Name the three components of the Munsell soil color system
Hue, Value, Chroma
Name the three major macronutrients for plant health
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium
What is the name for a clump of soil particles held together by OM, fungal hyphae and plant roots?
A soil aggregate
What is the name for the fertile soils that are made by the accumulation of wind transported silts?
Loess
What is the name for the diagnostic soil horizons at the soil surface used first to identify a soil?
Epipedon
atmostphere
hydrosphere
lithosphere
biosphere
pedosphere
What do we call the mass of a unit volume of dry soil that includes BOTH solids and pores?
Bulk density
Name the 5 ClORPT factors that impact soil formation
Climate, Organisms, Relief, Parent Material and Time
This soil order is reddish in color and has little difference between the a and b horizons
Oxisols