Introduction to Soils

An important factor influencing the productivity of any ecosystem is the nature of

its soils. Soils are vital for the existence of many forms of life that have evolved
on our planet. For example, soils provide vascular plants with a medium for
growth and supply these organisms with most of their nutritional requirements.
Plants are the basis of virtually all terrestrial food chains.
Soil itself is a much more complex phenomenon than most people realize. It is
certainly not just fine mineral particles or dirt. A true soil also contains air, water,
and organic matter (Figure 8). The formation of a soil is influenced by organisms,
climate, topography, parent material, and time. The following items describe
some important features of a soil that help to distinguish it from mineral
sediments.

Figure 8: Most soils contain four basic components: mineral particles, water, air, and organic matter.
Organic matter can be further sub-divided into humus, roots, and living organisms. The values given above
are for an average soil.

Organic Activity
A mass of mineral particles alone do not constitute a true soil. True soils are
influenced, modified, and supplemented by living organisms. Plants and animals
aid in the development of a soil through the addition of organic matter. Fungi
and bacteria reduce this organic matter to a semi-soluble chemical complex
called humus. Larger soil organisms, like earthworms, beetles, and termites, mix
humus into the mineral matter of the soil.
Humus is the biochemical substance that makes the upper layers of the soil
become dark. Humus is itself colored dark brown to black. Humus is difficult to
see or study in isolation because it becomes intimately mixed with mineral
particles. Humus provides the soil with a number of benefits:
• It increases the soil's ability to hold and store moisture.
• It reduces the eluviation of soluble nutrients.

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 • It is an important source of carbon and nitrogen required by plants.
• It improves soil structure for plant growth.
Organic activity in abundant in soils. One cubic centimeter of soil may contain
over 1,000,000 bacteria. A hectare of pasture land in a humid climate can
contain more than a million earthworms and about 25 million insects. Insects and
earthworms are very important in mixing and aerating the soil. These organisms
are also responsible for producing a significant part of a soil's humus through the
incomplete digestion of organic matter.

Translocation
When water moves downward into the soil, it causes both mechanical and
chemical translocations of material. The process of eluviation is the flushing of
fine particles (like clay) or dissolved substances to lower levels in the soil
profile. The process of deposition of these fine particles at the lower level is
called illuviation. Downward percolating water also causes the translocation of
nutrients and complex chemical substances within the soil profile. Like the finest
particles, these dissolved substances are removed from the surface layer and
are either removed by groundwater outflow or deposited at a lower level in the
soil. The complete chemical removal of these substances from the soil profile is
known as leaching.
Soil Texture
The texture of a soil refers to the size distribution of the mineral particles
composing the soil. Particles are normally grouped into three main classes:
sand, silt, and clay. Table 6 describes the classification of soil particles
according to size.
Table 6: Particle size ranges for sand, silt, and clay.

Type of Mineral Particle Size Range

Sand 2.0 - 0.06 millimeters

Silt 0.06 - 0.002 millimeters

Clay less than 0.002 millimeters

Of all the constituents of the mineral portion of the soil, clay is probably the most
important. Despite their small size, clay particles have a very large surface area
relative to their volume. This large surface is highly reactive and has the ability to
attract and hold positively charged nutrient ions. These nutrients are available to
plant roots for nutrition. Clay particles are also somewhat flexible and plastic

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because of their lattice-like design. This feature allows clay particles to absorb
water and other substances into their structure.
Soil pH
Soils support a number of inorganic and organic chemical reactions. Many of
these reactions are dependent on a variety of soil chemical properties. One of
the most important chemical properties of a soil is pH (Figure 9). Soil pH is
generally related to the concentration of free hydrogen ions in the soil matrix.
Hydrogen ions are made available to the soil matrix by the dissociation of water,
by the chemical activity of roots, and by many chemical weathering reactions.
The concentration of hydrogen ions determines the pH of the soil. Soils with a
relatively large concentration of hydrogen ions tend to be acidic. Alkaline soils
have a relatively low concentration of hydrogen ions.

Figure 9: The pH scale. A value of 7.0 is considered neutral. Values higher than 7.0 are increasingly
alkaline or basic. Values lower than 7.0 are increasingly acidic. The illustration above also describes the pH
of some common substances

Soil fertility is directly influenced by pH through the solubility of many nutrients. At

a pH lower than 5.5, many nutrients become very soluble and are readily leached
from the soil profile. At high pH, nutrients become insoluble and plants cannot
readily extract them. Maximum soil fertility occurs in the range 6.0 to 7.2.
Soil Color
Soils tend to have distinct variations in color both horizontally and vertically. The
coloring of soils occurs because of a variety of factors. Soils of the humid tropics
are generally red or yellow because of the oxidation of iron or aluminum,
respectively. In the temperate grasslands, large additions of humus cause soils
to be black. The heavy leaching of iron causes coniferous forest soils to be gray.
High water tables in soils cause the reduction of iron, and these soils tend to
have greenish and gray-blue hues. Organic matter colors the soil black. The
combination of iron oxides and organic content gives many soil types a brown
color. Other coloring materials sometimes present include white calcium
carbonate, black manganese oxides, and black carbon compounds.

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Soil Profiles
Most soils have a distinctive profile or sequence of horizontal layers. Generally,
these horizons result from the soil processes of eluviation and organic activity.
Five general layers are normally present in a typical soil: O, A, B, C, and R
horizons (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Typical layers found in a soil profile.

The O horizon is the topmost layer of most soils. It is composed mainly of plant
litter at various levels of decomposition and humus.
Below it is the A horizon. This layer is composed primarily of mineral particles.
which has two characteristics: it is the layer in which humus and other organic
materials are mixed with mineral particles, and it is a zone of translocation from
which eluviation has removed finer particles and soluble substances, both of
which may be deposited at a lower layer. Thus the A horizon is dark in color and
usually light in texture and porous. The A horizon is commonly differentiated into
a darker upper horizon or organic accumulation, and a lower horizon showing
loss of material by eluviation.

The B horizon is a mineral soil layer which is dominated by illuviation. It

receives material eluviated from the A horizon. This layer also has a higher bulk
density than the A horizon due to its enrichment of clay particles. The B horizon
may be colored by oxides of iron and aluminum or by calcium carbonate
illuviated from the A horizon.

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The C horizon is composed of weathered parent material that has not been yet
significantly affected by the pedogenic processes or translocation and organic
modification.
The R horizon consists of unweathered bedrock.

Soil Pedogenesis
Pedogenesis can be defined as the process of soil development. Late in the
19th century, scientists Hilgard in the United States and the Russian Dukuchaev
both suggested independently that pedogenesis was principally controlled by
climate and vegetation. This idea was based on the observation that comparable
soils developed in spatially separate areas when their climate and vegetation
were similar. In the 1940s, Hans Jenny extended these ideas based on the
observations of many subsequent studies examining the processes involved in
the formation of soils. Jenny believed that the kinds of soils that develop in a
particular area are largely determined by five interrelated factors: climate; living
organisms; parent material; topography; and time.
Climate plays a very important role in the genesis of a soil. On the global scale,
there is an obvious correlation between major soil types and the Köppen climatic
classification systems major climatic types. At regional and local scales, climate
becomes less important in soil formation. Instead, pedogenesis is more
influenced by factors like parent material, topography, vegetation, and time. The
two most important climatic variables influencing soil formation are temperature
and moisture. Temperature has a direct influence on the weathering of bedrock
to produce mineral particles. Rates of bedrock weathering generally increase
with higher temperatures. Temperature also influences the activity of soil
microorganisms, the frequency and magnitude of soil chemical reactions, and the
rate of plant growth. Moisture levels in most soils are primarily controlled by the
addition of water via precipitation minus the losses due to evapotranspiration.
If additions of water from precipitation surpass losses from evapotranspiration,
moisture levels in a soil tend to be high. If the water loss due to
evapotranspiration exceeds inputs from precipitation, moisture levels in a soil
tend to be low. High moisture availability in a soil promotes the weathering of
bedrock and sediments, chemical reactions, and plant growth. The availability of
moisture also has an influence on soil pH and the decomposition of organic
matter.
Living Organisms have a role in a number of processes involved in
pedogenesis including organic matter accumulation, profile mixing, and
biogeochemical nutrient cycling. Under equilibrium conditions, vegetation and
soil are closely linked with each other through nutrient cycling. The cycling of
nitrogen and carbon in soils is almost completely controlled by the presence of
animals and plants. Through litterfall and the process of decomposition,
organisms add humus and nutrients to the soil which influences soil structure
and fertility. Surface vegetation also protects the upper layers of a soil from

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erosion by way of binding the soils surface and reducing the speed of moving
wind and water across the ground surface.
Parent Material refers to the rock and mineral materials from which the soils
develop. These materials can be derived from residual sediment due to the
weathering of bedrock or from sediment transported into an area by way of the
erosive forces of wind, water, or ice. Pedogenesis is often faster on transported
sediments because the weathering of parent material usually takes a long period
of time. The influence of parent material on pedogenesis is usually related to soil
texture, soil chemistry, and nutrient cycling.
Topography generally modifies the development of soil on a local or regional
scale. Pedogenesis is primarily influenced by topography's effect on microclimate
and drainage. Soils developing on moderate to gentle slopes are often better
drained than soils found at the bottom of valleys. Good drainage enhances an
number of pedogenic processes of illuviation and eluviation that are
responsible for the development of soil horizons. Under conditions of poor
drainage, soils tend to be immature. Steep topographic gradients inhibit the
development of soils because of erosion. Erosion can retard the development
through the continued removal of surface sediments. Soil microclimate is also
influenced by topography. In the Northern Hemisphere, south facing slopes tend
to be warmer and drier than north facing slopes. This difference results in the
soils of the two areas being different in terms of depth, texture, biological activity,
and soil profile development.
Time influences the temporal consequences of all of the factors described
above. Many soil processes become steady state overtime when a soil reaches
maturity. Pedogenic processes in young soils are usually under active
modification through negative and positive feedback mechanisms in attempt to
achieve equilibrium.

Principal Pedogenic Processes

A large number of processes are responsible for the formation of soils. This fact
is evident by the large number of different types of soils that have been classified
by soil scientists. However, at the macro-scale we can suggest that there are five
main principal pedogenic processes acting on soils. These processes are
laterization, podzolization, calcification, salinization, and gleization.
Laterization is a pedogenic process common to soils found in tropical and
subtropical environments. High temperatures and heavy precipitation result in the
rapid weathering of rocks and minerals. Movements of large amounts of water
through the soil cause eluviation and leaching to occur. Almost all of the by
products of weathering, very simple small compounds or nutrient ions, are
translocated out of the soil profile by leaching if not taken up by plants for
nutrition. The two exceptions to this process are iron and aluminum compounds.
Iron oxides give tropical soils their unique reddish coloring. Heavy leaching also

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causes these soils to have an acidic pH because of the net loss of base
cations.
Podzolization is associated with humid cold mid-latitude climates and
coniferous vegetation. Decomposition of coniferous litter and heavy summer
precipitation create a soil solution that is strongly acidic. This acidic soil
solution enhances the processes of eluviation and leaching causing the
removal of soluble base cations and aluminum and iron compounds from the A
horizon. This process creates a sub-layer in the A horizon that is white to gray in
color and composed of silica sand.
Calcification occurs when evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation causing the
upward movement of dissolved alkaline salts from the groundwater. At the same
time, the movement of rain water causes a downward movement of the salts.
The net result is the deposition of the translocated cations in the B horizon. In
some cases, these deposits can form a hard layer called caliche. The most
common substance involved in this process is calcium carbonate. Calcification
is common in the prairie grasslands.
Salinization is a process that functions in the similar way to calcification. It
differs from calcification in that the salt deposits occur at or very near the soil
surface. Salinization also takes place in much drier climates.
Gleization is a pedogenic process associated with poor drainage. This process
involves the accumulations of organic matter in the upper layers of the soil. In
lower horizons, mineral layers are stained blue-gray because of the chemical
reduction of iron.

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