Types of soils

Question 1

Entisols

Answer 1

Recently deposited material (steep hillsides, sand dunes), no soil development; any climate.

Question 2

Inceptisols

Answer 2

Poorly developed but more than entisols, weak A layer and no B layer (floodplains, glaciated areas).
Any climate but usually humid.

Question 3

Histosols

Answer 3

Thick accumulations of organic material (gleization) (highest organic content).
Usually in swampy environments. Peat deposits.

Question 4

Oxisols

Answer 4

Tropical soils, high rainfall; laterization occurs here, so low fertility bc most of soils is iron and aluminum oxides (Amazon Basin).

Question 5

Ultisols

Answer 5

Highly weathered and leached forest soils, mostly in mid-latitudes.

Question 6

Spodosols

Answer 6

Similar to ultisols, but colder environment. Sandy parent material and podzolization.

Question 7

Vertisols

Answer 7

High content of swelling clays, soil mixed up.

Question 8

Mollisols

Answer 8

Soils of mid-latitude grasslands.

Much organic matter and relatively little leaching.

Question 9

Aridisols

Answer 9

Deserts and semideserts, thin horizons, little organic matter.
Salinization occurs here. B horizon my be caliche.

Question 10

Alfisols

Answer 10

Moderately weathered, transition from mollisols to ultisols. Fertile (“Corn Belt”)

Question 11

Andisols

Answer 11

Volcanic parent material, often fertile (Hawaii).

Question 12

Gelisols

Answer 12

Periglacial soils, slow decomposition.

Poor horizons from freeze-thaw.