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A diagnostic horizon is a horizon used to define soil taxonomic units (e.g., to define soil types). A taxonomic unit is determined by the presence or absence of one or more diagnostic horizons in a required depth. In addition, most classification systems use other soil characteristics to define taxonomic units.
A soil profile is one face of a pedon, or an imaginary three-dimensional unit of soil that would display the full range of properties characteristic of a particular soil. Pedons generally occupy between 1 and 10 m 2 of surface land area and are the fundamental unit of field-based soil study. [9]
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.
A catena in soil science is a series of distinct but co-evolving soils arrayed down a slope. [1] Each soil type or "facet" differs somewhat from its neighbours, but all occur in the same climate and on the same underlying parent material. A mature catena is in equilibrium as the processes of deposition and erosion are in balance.
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is a widely used mathematical model that describes soil erosion processes. [1]Erosion models play critical roles in soil and water resource conservation and nonpoint source pollution assessments, including: sediment load assessment and inventory, conservation planning and design for sediment control, and for the advancement of scientific understanding.
Soil erodibility is a lumped parameter that represents an integrated annual value of the soil profile reaction to the process of soil detachment and transport by raindrops and surface flow. [1] The most commonly used model for predicting soil loss from water erosion is the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) (also known as the K-factor ...
A represents soil; B represents laterite, a regolith; C represents saprolite, a less-weathered regolith; beneath C is bedrock. Saprolite is a chemically weathered rock. Saprolites form in the lower zones of soil profiles and represent deep weathering of the bedrock surface. In most outcrops, its color comes from ferric compounds.
Soil formation, also known as pedogenesis, is the process of soil genesis as regulated by the effects of place, environment, and history. Biogeochemical processes act to both create and destroy order within soils.