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Gelisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy. They are soils of very cold climates which are defined as containing permafrost within two meters (6 ft 7 in) of the soil surface. The word "Gelisol" comes from the Latin gelare meaning "to freeze", a reference to the process of cryoturbation that occurs from the alternating thawing and freezing ...
USDA soil taxonomy (ST) developed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters (most commonly their properties) and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series.
In the US, Gelisols occur only in parts of Alaska; they are characterized by having permafrost within 100 cm of the surface. Histosols are organic soils lacking permafrost within 100 cm of the surface; they are characteristically formed on wet sites, e.g. bogs, some fens and some muskeg areas. Some Histosols have been drained, especially to ...
Cryoturbation occurs to varying degrees in most gelisols. The cause of cryoturbation lies in the way in which the repeated freezing of the soil during autumn causes the formation of ice wedges at the most easily erodible parts of the parent rock .
The land area of Canada (excluding inland waters) is approximately 9,180,000 km 2, of which about 1,375,000 km 2 (15%) is rock land. The remainder is classified according to the Canadian System of Soil Classification.
The information in a soil survey can be used by farmers and ranchers to help determine whether a particular soil type is suited for crops or livestock and what type of soil management might be required.
The Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) is a soil classification system used in engineering and geology to describe the texture and grain size of a soil.The classification system can be applied to most unconsolidated materials, and is represented by a two-letter symbol.
Thus, Histosols are very important ecologically because they, and Gelisols, store large quantities of organic carbon. If accumulation continues for a long enough period, coal forms. Most Histosols occur in Canada, Scandinavia, the West Siberian Plain, Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea.