Soils Midterm

Geophagy - eating dirt

Plant macronutrients from air - C, H, O

Plant macronutrients from soil - Cations: Ca, Mg, N, K Anions: N, P, S, Si

Hydration - chemical weathering by binding of intact water molecules to minerals

Hydrolysis - H+ and OH-, H+ acts as cation to change minerals in chemical weathering

CLORPT - Climate, organisms, relief, parent material, time

Colluvium - poorly sorted rock fragments detached from the heights above and carried downslope, mostly by gravity, assisted in some cases by frost action or water

Alluvial deposits - floodplains, alluvial fans, and deltas

Loess - silt with some very fine sand and coarse clay, blown from deserts

Eluviation - movement of water through soil layers, leaching

Illuviaiton - depostition of minerals in layer

Humus - organic matter in soil

Soil texture - size of soil particles

Soil structure - manner soils are aggregated together

Carbonation - C filled rain water, acidic, decomposes minerals

Playa - salt deposit

Dissolution - dissolving minerals in water

Abrasion - stuff banging into each other

Pressure release - crystallization under surface, pressure release at surface, dome shaped

Entisols - no horizons, no water sorting

Inceptisols - soil starting to get horizons

Histosols - wetland soil, lots of OM, acidic

Vertisols - deep, cracking clay, constantly churning

Aridisols - arid, desert soils

Mollisols - prairies, high native OM, very fertile soils

Alfisols - cooler, temperate deciduous forest soils

Ultisols - warmer, temperate deciduous forest soils

Spodosols - conifer forest soils

Gelisols - permafrost soils plus peat, churning

Oxisols - tropical rainforest soils

Spodosol horizons - Albic E horizon, spodic B horizon

Productivity - rate organism accumulates biomass

Isostatic rebound - earth heaves up when stuff taken off top

Relict soil - soil formed under different climate and didn’t change

Regolith - dirt (not soil)