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Understanding Soil Components and Development Process

Soil is a dynamic system with organic and inorganic components formed by its environment and parent material. Learn about the mineral and organic components, parent material influence, and factors affecting soil development. Discover examples of soil formation on various parent materials. Explore the role of climate, age, and resistance of minerals in shaping soil composition and characteristics. Understand the significance of decomposers, nutrient recycling, and decomposition processes in soil health.

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Understanding Soil Components and Development Process

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  1. What is Soil?

  2. “a living, dynamic system with organic and inorganic components. Soil is a product of its environment and parent material”.

  3. components By volume: • 45% mineral • 5% organic material • 50% space (air/water) By mass? • 0% air • 18% water • 80% mineral • 2% organic material

  4. 1. The mineral component • inorganic • “mineral”: definition? • Primary: original components of earth crust • Secondary: new minerals made by weathering of earth’s crust • divided by particle size: • Sand, silt, clay

  5. mineral make-up due to: a. Parent Material b. How resistant minerals are c. Climate d. “Age”

  6. a. parent material material on and in which soil develops

  7. Examples of soil developing IN rather than ON parent material: 1. Apostle Islands

  8. 2. Boundary Waters

  9. 11 different parent materials …..

  10. Regolith/bedrock:weathered rock

  11. Alluvium:deposits on a flood plain from a river

  12. Marine deposits:shell, reef and other “bits” formerly at bottom of ocean that have been uplifted

  13. Lacustrine deposits: clay deposits originally laid down at the bottom of a lake; lake is no longer there

  14. Example: glacial lakes in MN

  15. Till:unconsolidated material deposited by glacial ice

  16. Outwash:unconsolidated, sorted material deposited by meltwater from a glacier

  17. Organic sediments: peat

  18. Volcanic ash

  19. Loess:deep deposits of silt that have been deposited by wind

  20. Sand:beach sand, dune sand

  21. Colluvium;material that moved downslope, as in a landslide

  22. mineral make-up due to: a. Parent Material b. How resistant minerals are c. Climate d. Age

  23. b. resistance of minerals • Soluble minerals are readily LEACHED from soil profile (Ca,Mg,Na) • Certain minerals tend to accumulate in soil • (oxides of Fe, Al, Si)

  24. mineral make-up due to: a. Parent Material b. How resistant minerals are c. Climate d. Age

  25. c. Climate • Amount of leaching • Rate of weathering

  26. mineral make-up due to: a. Parent Material b. How resistant minerals are c. Climate d. Age

  27. d. Age • Parent material is (usually) less influential in “older” (more highly developed) soil

  28. 2. Organic Component • Living (primarily decomposers) • Non-living (dead and all in-between stages of decomposition)

  29. …about decomposers: • Nutrient recycling • Respiration

  30. decomposer activity depends on: climate soil moisture conditions Micro-environmental factors (relief, drainage)

  31. decomposers and climate: 1) climate vegetation, litter (amount, type) 2) rate of decomposition hot,wet >> cold, dry

  32. soil moisture conditions • Hot, wet preference of decomposers

  33. micro-environmental factors (relief, drainage) • Slope aspect affects temperature • Drainage affects anaerobic/aerobic decomposition

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