Soils

Question 1

What are zonal soils?

Answer 1

• mature soils reflecting climatic conditions and associated vegetation

Question 2

What are intrazonal soils?

Answer 2

• reflecting the dominance of other factors, such as the characteristics of the part rock

Question 3

What are azonal soils?

Answer 3

• generally immature and skeletal, with poorly developed profiles.

Question 4

What are some of the reasons for deforestation?

Answer 4

• Land for settlement and associated infrastructure
• Land for ranching cash-cropping and plantations.
• Hardwood timbers
• Access for mineral exploitation

Question 5

Where are Tropical red latosol located?

Answer 5

• Five degrees on either side of the Equator.
• They’re best associated with the tropical equatorial rainforest biome supporting half of all living organisms on Earth.

Question 6

What are some of the conditions here?

Answer 6

It- Hot, wet, humid, and has no reason.

Question 7

What does the no-season weather provide?

Answer 7

• The year-round growing seasons mean rainforest trees shed their leaves at any time of the year.
• Providing a constant supply of leaf litter.

Question 8

What forests are Podsols often associated with?

Answer 8

• Coniferous forests and evergreen trees such as spruce.

Question 9

What are the notable characteristics of Podsols?

Answer 9

• Accumulation of hardpan of iron beneath the zone of leaching.
• This marks the highest point of the water table.
• Clear differentiation of horizons indicating fewer mixing agents such as earthworms and ants.

Question 10

Where are most Podsols located?

Answer 10

• Most Podsols lie beneath the North American and Eurasian taiga, where hunting of moose, caribou, and brown bear is no longer permitted, due to the diminishing of wildlife habitats through deforestation.

Question 11

What is the humus layer?

Answer 11

• It is a thin layer of rotting vegetation - such as grass and leaves. The nutrients in it return to the soil.

Question 12

What is topsoil?

Answer 12

• This is a layer that is rich in Humus, and the minerals from the rock, it is good for roots.

Question 13

What is Subsoil?

Answer 13

• It has little humus, but it’s rich in minerals. Tree roots reach this layer.

Question 14

What is rock that is being weathered?

Answer 14

• It is a rock that has been broken into chunks already. There are few signs of life this far down.

Question 15

What is Bedrock?

Answer 15

• Solid rock, not yet weathered however it will be one day.

Question 16

How does repeated erosion reduce fertility in soil?

Answer 16

• Removes the topsoil layer that is rich in crop nutrients and organic matter.
• Reduction in the depth of soil available for rooting and water storage.
• reduces infiltration of water into the soil, increasing run-off and erosion.

Question 17

What can the reduction in soil fertility lead to?

Answer 17

• Loss of seeds.
• Young plants being sandblasted
• The increased difficulty of field operations.

Question 18

What can damage to the environment include?

Answer 18

• deposition of sediment onto roads.
• Damage to quality of watercourses.
• Increased run-off and sedimentation causing greater flood-hazard downstream.
• Sediment in rivers damaging the spawning grounds of fish.

Question 19

What can be done to reduce soil erosion?

Answer 19

• Installing and maintaining field drains.
• Reducing the amount of water running off roads and farm tracks onto fields.
• Protecting soil in winter by the use of cover crops.
• Contour plowing.

Question 20

How can we control wind erosion?

Answer 20

• Increasing soil cohesion by applying organic matter (manure).
• increasing plant cover so surface wind speed can be cut.
• Increasing plant cover to about 50 percent goes fields adequate protection from wind erosion.