Soils

Question 1

What is the study of soils called?

Answer 1

Pedology

Question 2

What factors influence soil development?

Answer 2

The type of parent(source) material

The climate under which the soil components have existed since accumulation

The plant and animal life in and on the soil

The relief of the land

The length of time the other factors have interacted

Question 3

Which climatic forces act on parent material to form soil?

Answer 3

Precipitation, temperature, humidity, and wind

Question 4

What is a mature soil?

Answer 4

Soil with clearly defined layers

Question 5

What is a soil profile?

Answer 5

A vertical column of soil

Question 6

What are the soil layers in the profile called?

Answer 6

Horizons

Question 7

What is the dominant material in the O Horizon?

Answer 7

Organic Material

Question 8

What is found in the A Horizon?

Answer 8

Accumulation of organic matter and minerals

Question 9

Which horizon has the most plant root activity?

Answer 9

A Horizon

Question 10

Which horizon may be called the surface layer?

Answer 10

A Horizon

Question 11

What is the main feature of E Horizon?

Answer 11

The loss of silicate clay, iron, or aluminum, or some combo of these, leaving a concentration of sand and silt-sized particles.

Question 12

What can the B Horizon be referred to?

Answer 12

Subsoil

Question 13

What characteristics to B Horizons have?

Answer 13

Lighter colored, denser, and lower in organic matter than upper horizons

Question 14

What is leaching?

Answer 14

The process by which these materials are moved downward by water

Question 15

Which horizon is called the “zone of leaching?”

Answer 15

A Horizon

Question 16

How can minerals be drawn upward from lower soil layers?

Answer 16

High evaporation rates and plant absorption

Question 17

What is fragipan?

Answer 17

A dense, nearly impermeable subsurface layer

Question 18

What is claypan?

Answer 18

When fragipan is the result of extreme compactness of soil particles

Question 19

What is hardpan?

Answer 19

In Florida, when the cementation of soil particles occurs

Question 20

What is caliche?

Answer 20

When layers are cemented by calcium carbonate

Question 21

What is ironpan?

Answer 21

When layers are cemented by iron oxide

Question 22

What happens when pan is so hard that water does not easily pass through it?

Answer 22

The water flows horizontally through the soil until it reaches a break in the pan

Question 23

Which horizon is also called the substratum?

Answer 23

C Horizon

Question 24

What does the C Horizon consist of?

Answer 24

Less clay or other less-weathered sediments than the layers above. Partially disintegrated parent material and mineral particles.

Question 25

Which is the very lowest horizon?

Answer 25

R Horizon

Question 26

What is the R Horizon?

Answer 26

Bedrock

Question 27

When I was 5.5 I couldn’t go camping. I could hang out with Alfe B., but we couldn’t do Molly.

Answer 27

Soils with a pH below 5.5 don’t have calcium, magnesium, or phosphorus. The solubility for aluminum, iron, and boron is high. The solubility for molybdenum is low.

Question 28

When I was 7.8, I made a new friend, Cam G., and we did Molly. We weren’t feminine ‘cuz we ate peanut butter.

Answer 28

At pH 7.8 and up, calcium and magnesium are abundant, and molybdenum is available. Iron, manganese, copper, zinc, phosphorus, and boron aren’t there.

Question 29

What is the best pH range for plants?

Answer 29

6-7

Question 30

What is the best pH range for microbial activity

Answer 30

6.6-7.3