3: Soil Classification Flashcards
The smallest 3-D body of soil that can be classified.
Pedon
A landscape grouping of contiguous and similar soils; the basis of soil mapping.
Polypedon
The epipedon that is thick, dark, high OC, and > 50% base saturation.
Mollic
The epipedon that has the same properties as Mollic but is LOW in base saturation.
Umbric
The epipedon that has organic soil material on top of mineral soil.
Histic
The epipedon found only in cool, moist volcanic deposits.
Melanic
The epipedon that is light colored or has a thin dark surface layer; dominant in 95% of VA.
Ochric
The epipedon common in all urban areas
Anthropic
Levels of Soil Taxonomy (Top to Bottom)
Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, Series
What are the 6 important epipedons?
Mollic, Umbric, Histic, Melanic, Ochric, Anthropic
The default profile if you can’t describe anything else is…
A-C = Entisols
At the Order level, Soil Taxonomy generally separates taxons based on…
climate and vegetation interactions and diagnostic horizons.
At the Family level, we classify based on properties important to…
plant growth on a local/regional basis.
At the Series level, soils are grouped and separated based on…
dominant overall morphology and must occur on/in similar parent materials and climatic regimes.
Modern county level soils maps (Order 2) are compiled at a scale of…
1:24,000
