Chapter 1 Key Terms Flashcards
Arthropod
A phylum or division of the animal kingdom; includes insects, spiders, and Crustacea; characterized by a coating which serves as an external skeleton and by legs with distinct movable segments or joints.
Accumulation
To gather or collect.
Bacteria
Single-celled microorganisms; some cause human, animal, or plant diseases; others are beneficial.
Bedrock
Unweathered hard rock that lies directly beneath the soil layers or beneath superficial geological deposits, such as glacial drift.
Clay
A size term denoting particles, regardless of mineral composition, with diameter less than 2 microns.
Climate
The long-term average weather conditions.
Deposition
The addition of sediment, as by flowing water.
Erosion
The group of processes whereby earthy or rock material is worn away, loosened or dissolved and removed from any part of the earth’s surface.
Fungi
Plantlike organisms that have no chlorophyll; they get their nourishment from living or decaying organic matter.
Gravel
Accumulation of water-worn pebbles larger than two millimeters in diameter.
Ground cover
Any vegetation that grows close to the ground, producing protection for the soil.
Horizon
A layer of soil, approximately parallel to the surface, having distinct characteristics produced by soil-forming processes.
Irrigation
The artificial application of water to soil for the purpose of increasing plant production.
Leaching
The removal of soluble constituents from soils or other materials by percolating water.
Microorganism
An organism so small that it cannot be seen clearly without the use of a microscope; a microscopic or submicroscopic organism.
Mottle
Color difference on a mass of moderately poorly drained soil.
Nematodes
Microscopic, wormlike, transparent organisms that can attack plant roots or stems to cause stunted or unhealthy growth.
Organic matter
Matter found in, or produced by, living animals and plants, which contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and often nitrogen and sulfur.
Organism
Any living individual whether plant or animal.
Parent material
The horizon of weathered rock or partially weathered soil material from which the soil is formed.
Porosity
Refers to the extent of voids or openings in the soil that exist between soil particles and soil peds or clods. These pores hold water and air for absorption by plant roots.
Profile
A vertical section of a soil. The section, or face of an exposure made by a cut, may exhibit with depth a succession of separate layers.
Rock
Mineral matter of variable composition, consolidated or unconsolidated, assembled in masses or considerable quantities in nature.
Sand
A group of textural classes in which the particles are finer than gravel but coarser than silt, ranging in size from 2.00 to 0.5 millimeters in diameter.
Silt
Small, mineral, soil particle, ranging in diameter from 0.05 to 0.002 millimeters.
Soil
The mineral and organic surface of the earth capable of supporting upland plants. It has been (and is being) formed by the active factors of climate and biosphere exerting their influence on passive parent material and topography over neutral time.
Soil texture
The relative proportion in a soil of the various size groups of individual soil grains.
Topography
Slope of the land and the position on the landscape, such as the top of a hill, a hillside, or the foot of a slope.
Transformation
Change in form, appearance, nature, or character.
Translocation
To move or transfer from one place to another; cause to change location; displace.
Valley
An elongated depression between uplands, hills, or mountains.
Weathering
Atmospheric action on rock surfaces producing decomposition, disintegration, or alteration of rocks at or close to the earth’s surface.
