Lecture Intro B

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Lecture Intro B

• What is Soil?
• You will die but the carbon will not its career
  does not end with you. It will return to the
  soil, and there a plant may take it up again in
  time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant
  and animal life. --Jacob Bronowski
• Standing on soil feels so much different than
  standing on city pavement it lets you look
  inward and reflect. It allows your inner life to
  grow. --Ricardo Montalban
• Soil, like air, like water is a natural
  resource that we must protect in order to have a
  future on planet earth --Terry Cooper
  
  
  
• The Nation that destroys its soil destroys
  itself -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
• All natural resources...are soil or derivatives
  of soil.  Farms, ranges, crops, and livestock,
  forests, irrigation water and even water power
  resolve themselves into questions of soil.  Soil
  is therefore the basic natural resource. --- Aldo
  Leopold

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SOIL Definition 1

• SOIL - The unconsolidated mineral or organic
  material on the immediate surface of the earth
  that serves as a natural medium for the growth of
  land plants.
• Sense the Soil feel, smell, see, hear

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SOIL Definition 2

• The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on
  the surface of the earth that has been subjected
  to and shows effects of genetic and environmental
  factors of

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Factors

• 1) climate (including water and temperature
  effect
• 2) macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by
• 3) relief, acting on
• 4) parent material over a period of
• 5) time.

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Soil A Product

• soil differs from the material from which it is
  derived (Parent Material) in many
• a) physical,
• b) chemical,
• c) biological, and
• d) morphological properties and characteristics.

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Soil - the essence of life

• Darkle, darkle, little grain, I wonder how
  you entertain a thousand creatures microscopic.
• Grains like you from pole to tropic support
  land life upon this planet. I marvel at you,
  crumb of granite! (F.W. Hole, 1989)

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Soil does not equal DIRT
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Soils are Dynamic

• the air, water, organic matter will
  change with time and space.
• The Soil Ecosystem all parts of the soil,
  including biotic and abiotic.
• Soils are important to life as we know it on this
  planet!
• Without soil ..

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USDA-NRCS
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USDA-NRCS
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USDA-NRCS
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USDA-NRCS
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USDA-NRCS
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Soils and Plant Growth

• Physical support of plants
• Provides water and air
• Provides essential elements
• Macro-nutrients N,P,K,Ca,Mg,S
• Micro-nutrients B,Fe,Mn,Cu,Zn,Mo,Co,Cl

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USDA-NRCS
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Basic Soils Includes

• Understand soil variability
• Study physical, chemical biological
  properties
• Relate soil characteristics to various land uses

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Literature

• From 150 BC - Cato (the elder) - wrote De Agri
  Cultura (On Farming or On Agriculture)
• Current scientific journals include
• Soil Science Society of America - SSSA
  Journal-The journal publishes papers interpreting
  the outcome of scholarly inquiry, investigation,
  modeling, or experimentation designed to develop
  new or revise existing concepts or techniques in
  any phase of soil science
• Soil and Water Conservation -The Journal of Soil
  and Water Conservation is the Soil and Water
  Conservation Society's bi-monthly journal of
  applied research and conservation news.

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• Soils determine the suitability of land for
  various uses such as, housing developments,
  parks, golf courses, trails, ..

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Wet Soils - difficult to use for many land uses
due to high water table.
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Road cuts provide us a view of thesoil profile
and the parentmaterial the soil developed from.
This cut is through an area of very stony glacial
till in northeast Minnesota. The soil shows very
weak horizon development.
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The Beautiful Soil Profile
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This
soil profile provides vivid contrasting colors
and unique layering of the horizons.
From this time forward You will never again look
at a road cut without looking for the soil
horizons.
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The End
"Soil is the hidden, secret friend, which is the
root domain of lively darkness and silence."
F.W. Hole