Chapters 15-16 Flashcards
What is Soil?
A dynamic (never changing) material made up of both mineral and organic matter
What is a Ped?
The smallest soil part.
What is a Soil Pedon?
A unit of soil that is used to test the characteristics and properties of the soil.
What is a Polypedon?
Multiple pedons over the entire land
What are the dynamic factors of soil formation?
Climate, Organisms
What are the passive factors of soil formation?
Relief, Parent Material, Time
What is the O soil horizon?
The top layer, named after Organic Composition
What is the A soil horizon?
Zone of Accumulation, Top soil, darker than the other layers,
What is the E soil horizon?
Zone of Eluviation, water filters through by percolation, mix of minerals and organic material
What is the B soil horizon?
Zone if Illuviation, where minerals are deposited causing it to look red, yellow, or white,
What is the C soil horizon?
Weathered bedrock and weathered parent material
What is the R soil horizon?
Bedrock, hard rock
What is the solum?
Horizons A, E, and B, biotic activity occurs in the solum, includes living layers of the soil
What are the three main textures of soil?
Sand, Silt, Clay
What is Ecology?
The study of the relationships between organisms and their environment
What is Biogeography?
The study of the distribution of plants and animals and how it changes over time
What is an Ecosystem?
A self sustaining association of living plants and animals and their non living environment
What is a Community?
Interacting of populations of plants and animals in a particular place
What is a Population?
All of one species
What are the main four Biogeochemical Cycles?
Carbon Cycle, Oxygen Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle, Phosphorus Cycle
What is Primary Succession?
The beginning stage of an ecosystem
What is Secondary Succession?
The growth of a new ecosystem when some aspect of a previously functioning community is still present.
What is a Climax Community?
A community where life and death balance out
What is Symbiosis?
Mutually Beneficial, one or both members benefit
