GPHY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Soil Horizon, Regolith, Eluvium

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Geography
• Course: GPHY 102
• Professor: Ryan K Danby

Document Summary

Gphy102 lecture 24 and 25 soil and soil systems. Soil systems: describe the characteristic of soils, understand soil water budgets, examine processes responsible for soil development, introduce soil classification system. Important interface between biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere: formation of soil is impacted by 5 main factors. Affects rat and fate of runoff, and therefore soil depth, moisture, and nutrient content. Temperature affects rates of decay of organic matter. Decomposing vegetation adds to pool of soil organic matter. Organisms in soils affect rate of cycling. The natural surface layer of earth that contains living matter and can support plants. Consists of matter in all three states (s, l, g) Soil development: soils develop over long periods of time. Physical processes (weathering) break down rock fragments. Chemical processes (weathering) produce new minerals: parent material is the mineral matter that is being transformed into soil, organic material is contributed from biological materials.