Soil Science 13 (Soil Survey, Classification and Land Use)

I. Soil Survey Principles

Soil Survey Principles

Soil is a living, dynamic system, which forms at the interface between

atmosphere and lithosphere. It forms as a response to forces exerted by
climate and organisms, acting through time on a parent material situated in a
landscape position (Huddleston and Kling, 1980).

Soil survey work is conducted generally to help farmers locate areas that
are responsive to management. Also, to help them to decide what crops and
what management practices are good for the kind of soil in their farms.

Other practical purposes of soil survey include:

1. Rural land classification for rainfed and irrigated crop production
2. Land appraisal
3. Selection of new lands for settlement
4. Land-use planning at local, regional, and national level
5. Assessment of potentialities for specific crops
6. Forest management
7. Designing and constructing airports, highways, urban and industrial
structure, waste-disposal facilities, and recreational development.

Major components of soil surveying

Surveying of soils entails the following:
1. Studying and describing soils in the field.
2. Identifying soil taxonomic units and naming them.
3. Classifying kinds of soils into units that can be shown on soils maps.
4. Locating and plotting soil boundaries on base maps.
5. Studying the behavior of soils when used for crop production, forestry,
grazing and a variety of non-farm uses.
6. Synthesizing interpretations of the survey that predict the behavior of
different kinds of soils used in different ways.

Soil Surveying and Soil Classification

Soil survey requires a classification system to facilitate comparison of soils

for both similarities and differences.
A soil surveyor uses soil classification as a vehicle for transfer of
technology from research stations and farms to new and untried areas of like
soils.

How are soils classified?

“The purpose of any classification is to organize our knowledge that the

properties of objects may be remembered, and their relationship may be
understood most easily for a specific objective. The process involves formation
of classes by grouping the objects based on their common properties. In any
system of classification, groups about which the greatest number, most
precise, and most important statements can be made for the objective serve
the purpose best.” (Cline, 1949).

Most soil classification system assumed that there are individual soils, just
as there are individual animals or plants; and that these small, discrete units
can be treated as a population.
However, soils do not appear as discrete individual but rather a kind of
continuum varying from place-to-place reflecting changing soil-forming
conditions. Soil properties changed gradually over distance.

Most soil classification system assumed that there are individual soils, just
as there are individual animals or plants; and that these small, discrete units
can be treated as a population.
However, soils do not appear as discrete individual but rather a kind of
continuum varying from place-to-place reflecting changing soil-forming
conditions. Soil properties changed gradually over distance.

The problem of identifying soil individual was provisionally answered by

considering common characteristics or properties of soils.

The properties considered in soil classification are those that reflect

genesis of soil and those attributes that have some practical application
especially those related to crop production.

Category is a group of taxa, defined at about the same level of abstraction

and including the entire population.
Taxon (plural taxa) is a group of individual similar in selected properties and
distinguished from all other classes of the same population by differences in
these properties.

Soil as geographic bodies

Soils vary from place to place even at a very short distance, the soil
variability is usually controlled or is dictated by the geography or landscape
patterns.

Geographic order among sets of soil properties is explained by the concept

that natural soil bodies are the result of climate and living organisms acting on
parent materials, with relief exerting a modifying influence and with time
required for the sets of properties to form (V.V. Dokuchaev 1879).

Soil Taxonomy, specify a standard size of pit or what you may call sampling
unit, it is called PEDON (Greek, pedon, meaning ground).

A pedon is the smallest volume that can be recognized as a soil

individual. It serves as the standard unit body of soil represented in the
definition of taxonomic classes.
 Pedons – sampling units
Smallest volume for which one should describe and sample the soil.
Three dimensional
Lower limit is vague between the soil and the “non-soil”
Minimal horizontal area is 1m2 to 10 m2

Polypedons
- defined as one or more contiguous pedons, all falling within the defined
range of a single soil series.
- has a minimum size that is the same as the minimum size of one pedon, 1
m2, with no prescribed minimum area.
- Also called soil individual

SOIL SURVEY CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGY

Soil surveying makes a systematic study of an entire area to identify bodies
of soil that can be recognized as natural units, delineates these areas on map
as well as identifies the delineated areas in terms of kinds of soil.
A. Factors of Soil Formation and Mapping
- natural soil bodies are the result of climate and living organisms acting on
parent materials, with relief exerting a modifying influence and with time
required for the sets of properties to form.
- When soils are studied in only one locality, the likely conclusion is that relief,
parent materials, and time are the important factors.
- Regional patterns of climate and vegetation have high predictive value for
mapping soils
B. Pedons – Sampling Units
Pedon- standard sampling unit used in Soil Taxonomy (USDA, 1975)
- serves as a standard of reference for soil description and for obtaining
specimens for laboratory work.
 A pedon has lateral dimension of 1 meter if ordered variation in genetic
horizons can be sampled within that distance or if such horizons are both few
and faint.
A depth of 2 meters provides:
(a) good sample of major soil horizons,
b) includes much of the volume of soil permeated by plant roots, and
(c) permits reliable observations of soil properties as general practice.

Each taxonomic unit consists of:

- a central core or nucleus – a single modal profile representing the most
usual condition of each property of all soils in the class
- many other closely related profiles that vary from the central nucleus
within precisely defined limits.
C. Units of Soil Classification and Mapping
1. Taxonomic Units
- sets of soil characteristics
- a creation in the mind of man to facilitate his thought about objects in numbers
so great that he cannot comprehend them individually
i. Soil Order
-a group of soils having the same set of diagnostic horizons or features that are
marks of soil-forming processes.
ii. Suborder
- subdivision of orders according to presence or absence of properties
associated with wetness, soil moisture regimes, major parent material, and
vegetational effects as indicated by key properties.
iii. Great group
- subdivision of suborders according to similar kind, arrangement, and degree
of expression of horizons, with emphasis on upper sequum; base status; soil
temperature and moisture regime; presence or absence of diagnostic layers.
iv. Subgroup
- central concept taxa for great group and properties indicating intergradations
to other great groups, suborders, and orders; extra gradation to “not soil”.
v. Family
- a group of soil similar in properties important for plant root growth: broad soil
textural classes averaged over control section or solum; mineralogical classes
for dominant mineralogy of solum; soil temperature classes (based on mean
annual soil temperature at 50 cm depth.
vi. Soil series
- a group of soils having soil horizons similar in differentiating characteristics
and arrangement in the soil profile, except for the texture of the surface soil,
and developed from a particular type of parent material.
vii. Soil Type
- subdivision of the soil series based on the texture of the surface soil. It is no
longer considered as taxonomic unit. It is now considered as phase.
viii. Soil Phase
- used as a subdivision of any class in the natural system of soil classification, to
indicate characteristics useful to management.
ix. Variant
- separate soil series but too small known extent to justify establishment as new
series.
x. Taxajuncts
- polypedons that have properties outside the range of any recognized series. A
taxajunct is given the name of an established series that is most similar in
characteristics.

2. Map units
- a collection of areas defined and named the same in terms of soil components
or miscellaneous areas or both.
- Each map unit differs in some respect from all others in a survey area and is
uniquely identified on a soil map.
Consociations
- mapping unit with only one identified taxon plus allowable inclusions
occurring in each given delineation.
- at least one-half of the pedons are of the same soil component providing
the name for the map unit

Complexes and Associations

- consist of two or more dissimilar taxa components or miscellaneous areas
occurring in a regularly repeating pattern.
 - major components of a complex cannot be mapped separately at a scale
of about 1:24,000. while the major components of an association can be
separated.

Names of Complex:
- names of taxa, usually soil series joined by hyphens.
- surface texture, if the surface texture of all major components is the same,
otherwise the taxa are followed by the word “complex”.
Examples:
(1)Sharkey-Alligator clays;
(2)Gem-Springerville complex, 0 to 5 percent slopes.
Names of associations are similar to those of complexes except that the word
“association” always appears in the name.
Examples:
(1) Cohoe-Kenai association
(2) Hollis-Rock outcrop association
Associations can also be named for taxa of higher categories:
Examples:
(1) Crete-Butler families association
(2) Typic Fragiochrepts-Aaeric Fragiaguepts association
Undifferentiated groups
- consist of two or more taxa components that are not consistently associated
geographically but are included in the same map unit because use and
management are the same or very similar for common uses.
- identifies the principal components, but the map unit is identified by one
symbol on the map and by one name
Examples:
(1) Mardin and Wellsboro channery silt loams, very steep, is an undifferentiated
group of very steep soils of two series;
(2) Renshaw and Sioux soils, undulating, is an undifferentiated group of soils in
two series that have different surface texture phases.
Phases
- Any property or combination of properties that does not duplicate class limits
for a taxon can be used to differentiate phases, and any value of a property can
be set to divide phases.
- In general, phase criteria are given less of a range where soil use is intensive
and more of a range where use is extensive.
Attributes most used in defining phase of soil survey:
1. Texture of the surface layer
- identify the dominant texture of a mineral layer to a depth of 12 to 25 cm
- In some areas such as deserts, where the surface layer is normally thin and
cultivation is unlikely, the texture of the A horizon can be used in naming
phases even if less than 12 cm thick.
2. Deposits on the surface
Depositional phases of the buried soil may be recognized:
- Overblown: recent deposit of wind-blown material on the surface of an older
soil
- Wind hummocky: Recent wind-laid deposits form a fine pattern of hummocks
that markedly alter management requirements of the soil.
- Over wash: Material deposited by water contrasts with underlying soil and is
thick enough to influence management requirements significantly.
3. Rock fragments
- Rock fragments on the surface and in the surface layer are commonly used
as phase distinctions. Kinds of rock fragments are defined by shape and size.
4.Rockiness
- “rocky” -rock outcrops cover 10 % or less of the delineations
- area is more than 10 % rock outcrop, the map units are named as complexes
or associations of soil and rock outcrop.
5. Slope
Slope gradient, complexity, shape, length, and aspect are all potential bases
for phase distinctions.
- used mainly in high latitudes
Example:
25 to 40 percent north slopes (or north-facing slopes).
6. Depth
- used where variations in depth to a contrasting layer are significant to soil use,
management, or behavior
7. Substratum
- used when underlying material contrasts sharply with the material above and
interpretations are affected
- Plano silt loam, gravelly substratum, 6 to 20% slope
8. Soil-Water
- used to distinguish differences in soil-water state, water table level, drainage,
and the like where the series range in one or more of these properties need to
be divided for purposes of the survey.
- phases commonly used include high water table, moderately deep water
table, poorly drained, slightly wet, wet, ponded, and drained.
9. Salinity
- used to distinguish between degrees of salinity that are important for soil use
or management.
- Electrical conductivity values and observations of plant growth are guides for
recognizing phases.
10. Sodicity
- “sodic” is used as a phase designation, if needed, generally without terms for
degrees of sodicity;
Example:
Alpha loam, sodic, 0 to 3 percent slopes.
11. Physiography
- used as a phase criterion to distinguish phases of a single taxon can be used
to identify the less extensive soil.
Example terms that have been used to designate physiographic phases:
bench, depressional, fan, karst, ridge, and terrace.
(Tioga gravelly loam, fan, 0 to 8 percent slopes.)
12. Erosion
- Significant differences in a soil’s potential for use, management needs, or
performance may be brought about by accelerated erosion is the basis for
recognizing phases provided the taxonomic unit has not changed
Example:
Alpha loam, 8 to 15 percent slopes, eroded.
13. Thickness
- used to divide the range of thickness of the solum or of the upper horizons if
mappable areas of one such phase differ consistently from areas of the other
phase and require different interpretations for the purposes of the survey.
- Phases are not used to differentiate thickness of the subsoil or the
substratum.
14. Climate
- In some places, especially in mountainous or hilly areas, precipitation or air
temperature can differ greatly within short distances, yet these differences may
not be reflected in internal properties of the soil.
Miscellaneous Areas
- have essentially no soil and support little or no vegetation, without major
reclamation, because of active erosion, washing by water, unfavorable soil
conditions, or man’s activities.
Recognized kinds of miscellaneous areas:
(1) Badland
- moderately steep to very steep barren land dissected by many intermittent
drainage channels
- common in semiarid and arid regions
- potential runoff is very high, and erosion is active.
(2) Beaches
-sandy, gravelly or cobbly shores washed and rewashed by waves
-may be partly covered with water during high tides or storms
(3) Blown-out land
-consists of areas from which all or most of the soil material has been
removed by extreme wind erosion
- areas are generally shallow depressions that have flat or irregular floors
(4) Cinder land
-composed of loose cinders and other scoriaceous magmatic ejecta.
-Water-holding capacity is very low, and traficability is poor
(5) Dumps
-areas of smoothed or uneven accumulation or piles of waste rock and
general refuse
-consists of areas of water rock from mines, quarries, and smelters.
 -some dumps with closely associated pits are mapped as Dumps – Pits
complex.
(6) Dune land
-consists of sand in ridges and intervening troughs that shift with the wind.
-sand dunes that have been stabilized by vegetation are named as a kind of
soil rather than a Dune land.
(7) Glaciers
-large masses of ice formed on land by the compaction and recrystallization
of snow
(8) Gullied land
-consists of areas where erosion has cut a network of V-shaped or
U-shaped channels
-The areas resemble miniature badlands
(9) Lava flows
- areas covered with lava.
-Most flows have sharp, jagged surfaces, crevices, and angular blocks
characteristic of lava
(10) Oil-waste land
- consists of areas where liquid oily wastes, principally saltwater and oil,
have accumulated
- includes slush pits and adjacent areas affected by the liquid wastes.
(11) Pits
-open excavations from which soil and commonly underlying material have
been removed, exposing either rock or other material
Kinds of pit include mine pits; gravel pits; and quarry pits.
(12) Playas
-barren flats in closed basins in arid regions.

Locating the boundary of map unit delineation

- Depends on the purpose of the map
- Published soil association maps are grouped by topographic units
- The purpose is to identify land use potential
Map Scale
- A minimum area on a map is required to facilitate identification of delineations.
- Minimum delineation size is approximately large enough to permit printing
letters.
- Map scale refers to how many inches on the map represents inches on the
ground
- Scale of 1:24,000 says 1 inch on map = 24,000 inch on the ground.

Table 1. Actual land area represented by minimum size delineations (0.4 cm2 )
at various map scales

Orders of Soil Survey

- Different levels of detail are provided by soil survey maps
- Map scale and levels of detail are arranged in classes of soil surveys
called orders of soil surveys.
First and Second Order Soil Mapping
- Use of base maps and aerial photographs
- Progressively examines the soil by auger borings
- Alters delineations by obtaining direct observations by traversing the
terrain
Third, Fourth and Fifth Order of Soil Mapping
- Schematic maps are prepared by collecting and organizing information on
patterns of soil-forming factors obtained from remote sensing
 - Generalized soil maps are prepared by reorganization and omission of
some information from detailed primary source maps.
Orders of Soil Surveys
1. First order: very intensive (detailed); experimental plots, building sites;
minimum size delineation < 1 hectare.
2. Second order: intensive (detailed); general agriculture, urban planning;
minimum size delineation 0.6 to 4 has.
3. Third order: extensive; rangeland, community area planning; min. size
delineation – 1.6 to 16 has.
4. Fourth order: extensive (reconnaissance); for broad land use potential
and general land management; min. size delineation – 16 to 252 has.
5. Fifth order: exploratory; regional planning, national planning; min. size
delineation – 252 to 4000 has.