SOILS

18. Major constituents of soil: organic and inorganic matter, bacteria, water and air.
Soil is the result of the process of the gradual breakdown of rock - the solid geology that
makes up the earth. As rock becomes broken down through a variety of processes, such as
weathering and erosion, the particles become ground smaller and smaller.
As a whole, soil is made up from four constituents: mineral material, organic material, air
and water. There are considered to be three main mineral parts to soil; ‘sand’, ‘silt’ and
‘clay’. These parts give the soil its 'mineral texture'. In addition, as leaves and other organic
material fall to the ground and decompose - there also forms an ‘organic’ layer. Soil
scientists (or pedologists) use a series of sieves info to separate out the constituent parts in
order to characterize soil by texture class.
Soils may be characterized in terms of the properties they inherit from the underlying rock
(the parent material) and the properties resulting from alteration of the original parent
material by soil forming processes (also called ‘pedogenic’ processes). The latter effects can
be observed in the surface and subsurface horizon layers. Tropical soils can be tens of metres
deep!

Soil Profile
The soil profile is one of the most important concepts in soil science. It is a key to
understanding the processes that have taken place in soil development and is the means of
determining the types of soil that occur and is the basis for their classification. The soil
profile is defined as a vertical section of the soil from the ground surface downwards to
where the soil meets the underlying rock. The soil profile can be as little as 10 cm thick in
immature soils and as deep as several metres in tropical areas where the climate is conducive
to rapid alteration of the underlying rock to form soil. In temperate areas, the soil profile is
often around a metre deep and in arid areas somewhat shallower than this.
Virtually all soil profiles are composed of a number of distinctive layers, termed horizons,
interpretation of which is the key to understanding how the soil has formed. Most soils will
have three or more horizons. Soils that have not been cultivated will normally have L, F and
H layers at the surface. These layers largely represent different degrees of decomposition of
organic matter, the L layer representing the litter layer formed of recognisable plant and soil
animal remains, the F layer below, the fermentation layer, usually consisting of a mixture of
organic matter in different stages of decomposition, and the H layer, the humus layer,
consisting largely of humified material with little or no plant structure visible. Below these,
and in cultivated soils occupying the surface layer, is the A horizon composed of a more or
less intimate mixture of mineral and organic matter. The A horizon is often referred to as the
‘ploughed layer’ in cultivated soils. It is an important part of the soil because it is a source of
plant nutrients and contains the majority of plant roots. The A horizon may lie directly on the
B horizon or, in well developed soils, there may be an intermediate leached horizon, termed
E or A2, depending on the nomenclature system used. The E/A2 horizon is usually paler in
colour than the horizons above and below because it is a horizon that has been subject to
leaching and loss of components compared to the A and B horizons.

The B horizon is the horizon most widely used to identify soil types. Its morphology is
important in supporting the classification of soils. In some soils the B horizon results purely
from the weathering of the underlying rock whereas in other soils this weathering is
supplemented by the translocation of materials from overlying horizons. Thus, the B horizon
needs to be inspected carefully in order to understand the genesis of the soils. B horizons
may have a number of different subscripts indicative of the nature of the materials that have
moved into the horizon.

Below the B horizon is the C horizon. This latter horizon is often consistent with the parent
material and may have been little altered from the material in which the soil originally
formed.
Most soils have A, B and C horizons. Some, generally weakly developed, soils may have A
horizons lying directly on C horizons. When next you see a profile down through the soil,
perhaps in an excavated pit or in a roadside cutting, take time to look at the profile and see if
you can identify some of the different soil layers that make up the profile.
19. Factors influencing the formation of latosols: interaction amongst climate,
vegetation, biota and water in soil.
Latosol is a name given to soils found under tropical rainforests with a relatively high
content of iron and aluminium oxides. It is largely correct to say that latosols are tropical
soils, but the reverse is not true because there are many soils in the tropics that are not
latosolic. Latosols are red or yellowish-red in colour throughout and they do not have distinct
horizons. The red colour comes from the iron oxides in the soil. They are deep soils, often
20-30m deep. The soil generally contains a thin but very fertile layer of humus dropped from
plants and animals in the forest above, followed by an infertile second layer due to rapid
leaching in the high rainfall. The third level, weathered bedrock, is common to almost all soil
types. The latosol is completely reliant on the rainforest to maintain fertility, as all nutrients
leach away quickly when the forest is felled and the layer of humus is no longer being
replaced.
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