lecture 10 Flashcards
What does the term terrestrial environment refer to?
Terrestrial environment refers to land based ecosystems, where living organisms (biotic components) interact with non-living (abiotic) factors such as soil, rock, and air.
How much of earth’s surface do terrestrial environments cover?
Terrestrial environments cover 29% of Earth’s total surface area, while the remaining 71%
is covered by water.
How much of the earth’s crust is the geosphere? What’s it composed of?
the outer 40 km of Earth’s crust, is primarily composed of rocks and soil
Why is the study of soil important?
It’s the link between air, water, rocks, and organisms and is responsible for many diff functions that we couldn’t survive w out
What functions is soil responsible for?
Carbon and nutrient cycling (GBEC)
* Agriculture and forestry
* Water cycling and quality
* Natural waste decomposition
* Home for many organisms (e.g., microbes, insects)
What is soil?
soil is a product of the weathering of rocks by physical, chemical, and biological processes that give a medium that can support plant growth
What are the four major phases of soil?
1) Finely divided mineral matter
2) various levels of organic matter
3) Water
4) Air
What kind of mixture is soil?
Is a three-phase mixture, solid, gas, li
A complete description of soil in environmental reactions involves what?
All 3 phases of soil
Is soil renewable?
No, takes 200-400 years to produce 1 cm of soil in a location
Do all soils have organic matter?
No
What does the water in soils do?
It is responsible for transporting nutrients
What are the soil profiles?
O(surface layer) A(topsoil) B(subsoil) C(parent material) D(bedrock)
Why is there different colors in a soil profile?
Because rain percolates and leaches soil, carrying soluble and colloidal (0.001-1.0 um) of material lower into soil, this results in the development of banded layers or horizons
What is the main component of soil? second most?
silicate minerals, aluminum
What are the four major components of soil?
1) Finely divided mineral matter (variable in size & composition)
2) various levels of organic matter (1-6%)
3) Water
4) Air
What is the finely divided mineral matter coming from?
Primary (quartz, feldspar, biotite)
secondary (silicate clay and iron oxide)
inorganic matter (silicate minerals)
How do silicate minerals lead to diff structures?
due to their tetrahedral shape
Why are clays important?
Clay particles are much smaller than sand/silt, their total surface area per gram is 1000x larger
The most important surface processes occur where?
On the surface of colloidal clay particles
What are the soil particles sizes, smallest to biggest?
clay, silt, sand (fine and coarse), gravel
What are clays? (6)
are aluminosilicates
* some of the most important minerals
* are natural water barriers & used as landfill liners
* constitute large component of soils
* are important in interaction between inorganics & organics
* form sheet-like structures
Name three examples of clay minerals
illite, kaolinite, montmorillonite
Silica is attached to how many OH?
4
Alumina is attached to how many OH?
6
What is the structure of Kaolinite?
is a single sheet of silica tetrahedron and a single sheet of alumina octrahedron bonded together by strong H-bonds
What is illite?
is a sheet of aluminum octahedron sandwiched by two sheets of silica tetrahedron. These layers are weakly bond together by K+ ion which stops water from getting through
What montomorillonite structure?
has one aluminum layer sandwiched between two sheets of silica. between these layers, water molecules are there which produce weak bonding. On the surface in the interlayer space, cations are bound due to negative charges at the surface by replacing Si4+ with Al3+, which then get replaced by Fe2+ and Mg2+. These cations are exchnagebale
What are physical properties of montomorillonite due to it’s large cation exchange capacity?
It can bind water, swell, and is liner in landfills
What is weathering?
Complex processes by which rocks on earth’s surface are transformed into soils are collectively known as weathering
How is soil weathered physically?
Temperature
Erosion & deposition by wind, water & ice
Plants and animal influence
How is soil weathered chemicially?
Through decomp, hydration, acid-base rxns, hydrolysis, complexation rxns, redox rxns
How does weathering by hydration occur?
you add water molecules to the rocks minerals, works with secondary minerals. The minerals swell and increase in volume and then become soft and lose their luster