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The dominant material is the montmorillonite clay material which has a high swell and shrinks characteristics depending on the soil water content. In the dry season, evaporation moves water from the deep horizon toward the soil surface through capillary action. The water removal results in shrinkage of clay, and the soil becomes dry and hard.
This is a key factor in the development of vernal pool plant communities as it keeps the soil at the water's edge just wet enough for vernal plant communities to flourish while those closer to the center of the pool are more inundated, leading to zonation of plant communities as the water level recedes. This clay layer also allows pools to ...
Fuller's earth being used to create "muddy" water to simulate a natural habitat for the laboratory hatching of fish eggs. In the laboratory, for filtering, decolorizing, absorbing, and mimicking natural sediment (as in experiments simulating the weathering effects of erosion and deposition in geological experiments, and hatching fish eggs).
Clay is generally considered undesirable for agriculture, although some amount of clay is a necessary component of good soil. Compared to other soils, clay soils are less suitable for crops due to their tendency to retain water, and require artificial drainage and tillage to make suitable for planting.
The pore size distribution affects the ability of plants and other organisms to access water and oxygen; large, continuous pores allow rapid transmission of air, water and dissolved nutrients through soil, and small pores store water between rainfall or irrigation events. [61]
Normal pond life is unable to survive, and skeletons of freshwater molluscs such as Sphaerium and Planorbis accumulate as part of the bottom marl. [13] In Hungary, Buda Marl is found that was formed in the Upper Eocene era. It lies between layers of rock and soil and may be defined it as both "weak rock and strong soil." [16]
The particle size distribution of a soil, its texture, determines many of the properties of that soil, in particular hydraulic conductivity and water potential, [1] but the mineralogy of those particles can strongly modify those properties. The mineralogy of the finest soil particles, clay, is especially important. [2]
Pores (the spaces that exist between soil particles) provide for the passage and/or retention of gasses and moisture within the soil profile.The soil's ability to retain water is strongly related to particle size; water molecules hold more tightly to the fine particles of a clay soil than to coarser particles of a sandy soil, so clays generally retain more water. [2]