Factors That Affect Soil Development

“Drainage patterns, the hilliness of the ground, the range of soils, the nature of the bedrock,

Soil type and adaptation of that soil. What is different about wetland soil? How can we recognize it?

These are soils consisting predominantly of unaltered mineral material that have no surface/sub-surface horizon attributed to soil forming processes (unless buried under a 730cm thick deposit from the Holocene) (Avery, 1980;). These soils do not normally have continuous vegetation cover (Avery, 1980). They occur in very recently formed soil and may have a superficial organic or organo-mineral layer less than 5cm thick. Sometimes they have a buried horizon below 30cm of depth. (Thompson, 2007; Jarvis, 1984).

Extracted soil samples indicate simultaneous reduction of rainfall and occasional erosion. Both soil and sediment features show establishment of marked

Soil turnover - as soil is moved around by digging animals, organic matter is mixed through which distributes nutrients throughout the soil

The soil is mostly known in Wisconsin for the characteristics of being productive, well-drained, and a soil with a

What is soil? Soil is a mixture of broken rocks, minerals, living organisms, and decaying matter.

The soil has a thick litter layer, but thin humus layers due to fast decomposition. There is also a rapid leaking, which is the downward movement of the nutrients in solution in the soil. Soil is determined by the climate, vegetation, topographic position and soil age.

The soil nutrient availability is higher around trees that are older bigger and less available around open fields. The rich soil tends to be near trees and cannot thrive thrive out in the open. Light availability differs with the types of trees and the open grasslands. Some plants have to survive and fight for sunlight. The decomposition rate is pretty quick because of termites that are in the

Erosion shapes the land by water, wind, or ice (usually glaciers) wearing down and removing weathered soil and rock from one location, by carrying and depositing it at another location. Rain carries away spots of soil and slowly washes away fragments of

Smithville’s Joel Shoup said there are a lot of different soil types, and the kind of soil can change over a short distance. “You can go 20 feet and find differences,” he said.

On the one hand, there is the effect of water content in the soil: due to its ability to store

On the opposite, if there is a flat or gentle ground, and some kinds of vegetation covering, the volume and speed of overland flow will decrease.

Generally soils located in grassland regions have very and this is what I presumed, however, the Delpoint soil series has a relatively short A horizon, which is abnormal for a grassland soil. The melanization that has formed this A horizon is very minimal and made so due to the cryic temperature regime, which blesses us with short periods of frost free conditions as well as limited precipitation decreases organic material. This also shows how this soil creates its self and is forming from the parent material and slowing working upwards. Also some alluvial deposits from up hill deposit to form the thin fertile crust.

The high water content of these soils causes the chemistry to be primarily reducing rather than oxidizing as it is in most other soils. Most of the reactions are mediated by biological activities. Such a chemical environment means that the rate of decomposition of organic matter is relatively slow. The reduced carbon in the organic matter of saturated soils is the source of energy and electrons to drive the redox reactions (Schipper et al, p. 923). Under slightly reducing conditions, the process of denitrification breaks down nitrate (NO3-) into N2 "through intermediates including nitrite (NO2) and N2O" (McBride, p. 265). Under strongly reducing conditions, some of the N2 is transformed into NH4- through plant enzyme-catalization in a process called nitrogen fixing. Reducing conditions also change sulfate (SO42- ) into H2S a noxious smelling gas. Much of the hydrogen sulfide is dissolved and dissociated in the water where the sulfide interacts with Fe2+ form iron sulfides. In more moderately reducing conditions the iron can be contained in siderite (Fe CO3). In both instances the solubility of iron is greatly reduced (McBride, p. 266). Saturated soils tend to decompose organic matter slowly, transform nitrates, and reduce the solubility of metals such as iron. The reduced iron results in gleying (greyish-green coloration) of the soil and in the case of fluctuating water levels mottles