EESB05H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Soil Horizon, Aeration, Porosity
Document Summary
Depending on 5 key soil forming factors, creates diversity of end weathering products from parents material. Why is this important? (lead to many applications of soil science) Fundamental characterizes linked to physical properties including: Most important/nearly permanent feature of soil (stays relatively consistent) Many physical, chemical, biological properties of soil related to texture. Texture = mineral (size of end products) Silt much larger/doesn"t have tendency to stick together. Diameters not necessarily as important as behavior. Dominated by clay particles = silicate minerals. 3 textural classes most important impact on end products. Like sheets laid on top of each other. Parent material getting blasted down to smaller/smaller particles. Clay same exterior (same volume) but since smaller and layering effect = much larger surface area. Notebook example: sand = only surface of book, clay = surface of book plus all pages. All characteristics change for each class of soil. Absorbing power much greater in clay than silt/sand.
