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In agriculture, soil compaction is a complex problem in which soil, crops, weather and machinery interact. External pressure due to the use of heavy machinery and inappropriate soil management can lead to the compaction of subsoil , creating impermeable layers within the soil that restrict water and nutrient cycles .
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 ...
The amount of carbon a soil can sequester depends on the climate and current and historical land-use and management. [6] Cropland has the potential to sequester 0.5–1.2 Pg C/year and grazing and pasture land could sequester 0.3–0.7 Pg C/year. [7] Agricultural practices that sequester carbon can help mitigate climate change. [8]
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 .
Soil sieve nests with dry soil aggregates after removal from a laboratory drying oven. Soil aggregate stability is a measure of the ability of soil aggregates—soil particles that bind together—to resist breaking apart when exposed to external forces such as water erosion and wind erosion, shrinking and swelling processes, and tillage.
The formation of the claypan relates to a lack of vegetation coverage, soil particle size distribution, and high rainfall. The lack of vegetation coverage makes soil become more susceptible to raindrop attacks. When the raindrops hit on bare soil with high energy, the fine sand, silt, and clay particles are re-arranged to plug all the pore spaces.
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]
Soil is composed of organic matter (decomposing plants, animals, and microbes), biomass (living plants, animals, and microbes), water, air, minerals (sand, silt, and clay), and nutrients (nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus). [4] For optimal plant growth, a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio of 20–30:1 must be maintained. [3]