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Parent material is the underlying geological material (generally bedrock or a superficial or drift deposit) in which soil horizons form. Soils typically inherit a great deal of structure and minerals from their parent material, and, as such, are often classified based upon their contents of consolidated or unconsolidated mineral material that has undergone some degree of physical or chemical ...
Soil develops through a series of changes. [2] The starting point is weathering of freshly accumulated parent material.A variety of soil microbes (bacteria, archaea, fungi) feed on simple compounds released by weathering and produce organic acids and specialized proteins which contribute in turn to mineral weathering.
Parent rock. In the earth sciences, parent rock, also sometimes substratum, is the original rock from which younger rock or soil is formed. In soil formation, the parent rock (or parent material) normally has a large influence on the nature of the resulting soil; for example, clay soil is derived from mudstone while sandy soil comes from the ...
How soil formation proceeds is influenced by at least five classic factors that are intertwined in the evolution of a soil: parent material, climate, topography (relief), organisms, and time. [56] When reordered to climate, relief, organisms, parent material, and time, they form the acronym CROPT. [57]
Soil horizon. A cross section of a soil, revealing horizons. A soil horizon is a layer parallel to the soil surface whose physical, chemical and biological characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath. Horizons are defined in many cases by obvious physical features, mainly colour and texture.
The physical properties of soil, in order of decreasing importance for ecosystem services such as crop production, are texture, structure, bulk density, porosity, consistency, temperature, colour and resistivity. [1] Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand ...
Soil matrix. The soil matrix is the solid phase of soils, and comprise the solid particles that make up soils. Soil particles can be classified by their chemical composition ( mineralogy) as well as their size. The particle size distribution of a soil, its texture, determines many of the properties of that soil, in particular hydraulic ...
An example is the German soil systematics. Other systems combine characteristics resulting from soil-forming processes and characteristics inherited from the parent material. Examples are the World Reference Base for Soil Resources [4] (WRB) and the USDA soil taxonomy . [5]