+
Related Flashcards
Cards In This Set
| Front | Back |
|
Why do we care about soil?
|
1. Crucial to food and fiber supply
2. Critical to clean drinking water (soils filter water physically and via bacteria - ie. septic) 3. Necessary for nutrient cycling 4. Needed for organic waste decay (for plants to have nutrition, they have to be able to break down waste) 5. Needed to prevent flooding |
|
Soil and climate
|
Soil is important for climate because plants store carbon and soil does to as decomposed plants. Wetlands are carbon sinks.
|
|
Denitrification
|
Bacteria get rid of nitrate in soil. nitrate is a plant nutrient. can run-ogg and pollute and lead to extra plant growth. floods naturally move nutrients from waterbed to soil
|
|
Why learn about soil science?
|
1. Poor soil management leading to erosion (via wind and water)
2. Construction of impervious surfaces and land use conversions 3. Soil degradation from over-grazing, poor irrigation practices (salinization- build-up of salt in soils) 4. Desertification, over-cultivation and loss of soil fertility...etc. 5. Pollution impacts |
|
Which parts of soil most likely to be blown away?
|
Humus and clay-the most fertile parts of soil
|
|
Soil connection to environment
|
Soil is not a system in isolation - it is conencted to hydrosphere, lithosphere, etc.
|
|
What is soil?
|
The earth consists of solid part (core, mantle and crust), surrounded by atmosphere. soil in the thin "weathered" crust of our planet. Soils are created by the effects of climate and living organisms acting upon geologic parent materials over long periods of time...giving each soil a "unique" set of properties
|
|
Soil definition
|
Soil is the naturally occurring, fragmented, porous, and relatively loose assemblage of mineral particles and organic matter that covers the surface of our planet's terrestrial biomes
|
|
What makes one soil different from another? (overview)
|
Different parent materials, different plant communities, effect of water table (huge!), climate
|
|
Soil and water table
|
Soil color patterns are used to ID water table
|
|
Climate, soil and microbes
|
Climate has a huge effect on types of soils in landscapes, which degines microbes and other organisms in that area
|
|
Where is most parent material from in NE? NE and glaciers explained (overview)
|
Last period of glaciation covered NE approcimately 18th years ago. glacial retreat occurred about 10 to 12th years ago. glaical debris caused a variety of post-glacial environments even though all of MA was covered by glacier. When ice retreats melt>speed moving forward. Basal till beneath ice sheet was plastered by weight of 2 mile sheet. outwash is from the melt water. finest particles ended up in lake bottoms, like glacial lake hitchcock. mt sugarloaf was an island on the lake.
|
|
What gives soil its color?
|
Fe is one of the primary minterals in soil. Oxidation of iron. as oxidizes more, soil gets darker. Under anaerobic conditions, microbes make Fe turn blue/gray
|
|
Wetlands
|
High amount of organic matter in wetlands
|
|
How is soil more than dirt?
|
Although soil is primarily made of solid mineral particles, a healthy topsoil should include about 5% organic material. between solid particles (both mineral and organic) are open spaces, called pore spaces
|
