Lecture 3b Writing Soil Profile Descriptions and Forest Soils

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Lecture 3bWriting Soil Profile Descriptions and
Forest Soils
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Writing Soil Profile Descriptions

• First step- prepare suitable pedon for describing
• Stand back and view the horizons from a distance
• Determine approximately how many distinct
  horizons are present.

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Collecting the data to write the soil morphology
descriptionSoil location Pipestone County, SW
Mn.

• This soil has 4 horizons
• Determine the colors, structure, texture, add
  HCl, look for unusual features, Select the name
  of horizon, and classify the soil.

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• 1 10yr 2/1 gr -Loam
• 2 10yr ¾ sbk -Loam
• 3 2.5y 4/4 and has CaCO3 concretions sbk
  Effervescence. -Loam
• 4 2.5y 5/4 massive structure and CaCO3
  concretions and Effervsence.- Loam

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Name the Horizons

• A
• Bw
• Bk
• Ck

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Forest Soils

• Forest trees depend directly upon the soil
  for physical support, nutrition, and
  water
• The importance of soils in the life and health of
  the forest has not been understood until recent
  years.
• The need for management of agricultural soils has
  been studied for a hundreds years.

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• German scientists were the first to actively
  established the importance of soils and the role
  they play in forestry.

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• Other German scientists recognized that forest
  soils were most fertile
• where there were no removals of forest products,
  
• and poorest where removals were intensive.

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Courses in Forest Soils in the U.S.

• Forest soils courses were at Yale, Duke ,
  Cornell, and Wisconsin prior to 1945.
• As more observations were made of the
  relationship between soil properties and forest
  growth, the case for the study of forest soils
  was made.

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Forest Soil Characteristics

• O Horizons- Duff layer
• E horizons
• Leached horizons, More acidic
• Drip Line influence on soil

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• Drip Line more water deposited under the tree
  due to the canopy catching water
• Greater influence where trees are in the open
  not a thick forest

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Tree fall and root tip up

• 1. Tap root (hickory, walnut, butternut, white
  oak, hornbeam)
• 2. Heart root (red oak, honey locust, basswood,
  sycamore, pines)
• 3. Flat root (birch, fir, spruce, sugar
  maple, cottonwood, silver maple, hackberry)
• Forests with more 3 will have more tip ups.

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• When a tree falls over and the root mass tips
  upward, the soil will remain in place for a few
  years. Gradually the soil is eroded around the
  decaying root mass.
• Over time the area of root tip is left higher
  than the area from which it came. The forest
  gradually becomes a series of micro hills and
  swales.

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http//www.hubbardbrook.org/yale/watersheds/w6/wes
t-of-6-stop/soil.htm
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DYAD

• Describe where you have obtained an experience in
  a forest.
• What do you remember most about this experience?

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US Forest Service Research is centered on two
areas of work

• First is work on
• nutrient cycling,
• plant nutrition,
• soil moisture,
• plant growth relationships,
• soil microbiological functions
• soil quality.

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• Second general area of pollution involving
• Sedimentation from soil,
• chemical deposition and water flow through
  ecosystems.
• Main research objective enhance soil and
  ecosystem sustainability.

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• This joint National Forest System and Forest
  Service Research and Development project was
  initially established to evaluate timber
  management impacts on long term soil productivity

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To increase the accuracy of the study, monitoring
efforts want to

• 1) Calibrate changes in soil properties against
• 1. stand productivity (trees only)
• 2. total productivity (all forest vegetation)
• 2) Evaluate and improve field monitoring methods.
• 3) Find ways to extend results to other sites.

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Objectives

• 1. Quantify the effects of soil disturbance on
  soil productivity,
• 2. Validate standards and methods for soil
  quality monitoring, and
• 3. Understand the relationships between soil
  properties and forest management practices.

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• Findings from this research will show how changes
  in site
• organic matter and
• soil porosity affect forest health, productivity,
  and sustainability.

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LTSP research focuses on the role of soil
porosity and organic matter and their effect on
the site processes that control productivity.

• Long Term Soil Productivity (LTSP) system
  experimental sites studied with universities,
  on the National Forests
• The experiments are designed to create varying
  degrees of stress and to provide measures of
  biological response and soil recovery.
• Sites are on soil types across the nation and are
  dedicated to long-term research.

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• Brian Palik and Randy Kolka Silviculture and
  Forest Soils Research
• USDA Forest Service - Grand ,Rapids, MN 55744-
  stationed at Marcel, MN

• Principal Investigators for (LTSP) research in
  aspen forests of the Lake States Objectives
• (1) determine how changes in soil porosity and
  organic matter content affect the fundamental
  processes controlling forest productivity and
  sustainability
• (2) compare responses among major forest types
  and soil groups in North America

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The experimental design is with three levels each
of organic matter removal and soil compaction.

• Levels of organic matter removal are (1) bole
  only harvest (10 cm top diameter) (2) total tree
  harvest (all aboveground biomass) and (3) total
  tree harvest plus forest floor removal.
• Levels of soil compaction were designed to
  increase bulk density of the surface 30 cm of
  soil by 0, 15, and 30.
• Studies are in progress on the Marcell
  Experimental Forest (1991) and on the Ottawa
  (1992), Chippewa (1993), and Huron Manistee
  (1994) National Forests.

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Similar Study on Commercially Logged Sites

• Purpose To establish linkages between
  experimental results and actual field conditions
  on commercially logged sites
• Note the study of forests soils is similar to
  the study of agricultural soils determine the
  management needed for sustained yield and still
  protect the environment.

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The End