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Soil particles become suspended when in a solution with water, with sand being affected by the force of gravity first with suspended silt and clay still floating in solution. This is also known as turbidity , in which floating soil particles create a murky brown color to a water solution.
Gay Head Cliffs in Martha's Vineyard consist almost entirely of clay. A Quaternary clay deposit in Estonia, laid down about 400,000 years ago. Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals [1] (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al 2 Si 2 O 5 4).
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]
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]
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]
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 ...
Available water capacity is the amount of water held in a soil profile available to plants. As water content drops, plants have to work against increasing forces of adhesion and sorptivity to withdraw water. Irrigation scheduling avoids moisture stress by replenishing depleted water before stress is induced. [64] [65]
Ultisol, commonly known as red clay soil, is one of twelve soil orders in the United States Department of Agriculture soil taxonomy. The word "Ultisol" is derived from "ultimate", because Ultisols were seen as the ultimate product of continuous weathering of minerals in a humid, temperate climate without new soil formation via glaciation .