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If the soil is too high in clay or salts (e.g. saline sodic soil), adding gypsum, washed river sand and organic matter (e.g.municipal solid waste) will balance the composition. [248] Adding organic matter, like ramial chipped wood or compost, to soil which is depleted in nutrients and too high in sand will boost its quality and improve production.
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). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide .
Saprolite is a particular example of a residual soil formed from the transformation of granite, metamorphic and other types of bedrock into clay minerals. Often called weathered granite, saprolite is the result of weathering processes that include: hydrolysis, chelation from organic compounds, hydration and physical processes that include ...
A fourth term, loam, is used to describe equal properties of sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample, and lends to the naming of even more classifications, e.g. "clay loam" or "silt loam". Determining soil texture is often aided with the use of a soil texture triangle plot. [5] An example of a soil triangle is found on the right side of the page.
Soil texture is the analysis and classification of the particle size distribution in soil. The relative amounts of sand, silt, and clay particles determine a soil's texture, which affects the appearance, feel and chemical properties of the soil. [12] Soil texture-by-feel method
A soil scientist examining horizons within a soil profile. Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils. [1]
Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand, silt, and clay. At the next larger scale, soil structures called peds or more commonly soil aggregates are created from the soil separates when iron oxides, carbonates, clay, silica and humus, coat particles and cause ...
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life , soil biota , soil fauna , or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil- litter interface.