Resource: NRCS Soils Presentation

(National Resources Conservation Service)

Resource Type:

Presentation / Government Agency

Summary:

Slide presentation on soils from around the world.

References:

Soil Processes hotlist by Mark Johnsson.
NRCS home page.
Recommended Soil Testing Procedures for the Northeastern United States (USDA Cooperative Extension).

People:

Richard Arnold (NRCS).

Workshop Outline:

(See the schedule for dates and times.)

Each of the sections below could be a slide talk and discussion to assist teachers in rounding out soil information in support of their overall teaching program or projects. (Select a section to see the complete outline.)

• The Pedosphere - the geomembrane that helps sustain life.
• Soils - environmental entities extraordinaire
• Climate Change and the Pedosphere - the Permafrost Zone
• Climate Change and the Pedosphere - Desert Margins
• Myths are stories of unknown origin - some facts about soils in the tropics
• Everybody is somebody's neighbor - What soils are in your backyard?
• When humankind makes new soils will your kids know why?

A. THE PEDOSPHERE - earth system's active surface - the geomembrane that helps sustain life.

• Spheres of the earth system - why is the pedosphere unique?
• Major functions of the pedosphere
  • habitat ... biotic interactions whose metabolism is the basis for the regulation and production functions of soils
  • regulation ... refers to the behavior of functioning ecosystems such as supplying water and mediating energy fluxes
  • utilization which includes (a) production which transforms and exploits biomass such as agriculture and forestry, and (b) a carrier function relating to use of soils as building sites, construction materials, and disposal areas
  • cultural... ...the essential basis for human history and culture
• examples of functioning and dysfunctional soil systems
• Properties associated with ideal functioning systems
  • soil and environmental conditions
  • judging the quality of soils to perform their functions
  • thresholds, resilience, degradation
• Significance of the Cultural Function of soils
• Beginning to understand the variability of the pedosphere
  • overload of information
  • variations seem important to society (production and carrier functions)
  • desire to use the soil system as a collection of components rather than as an integrated single system
  • organizing information about soils - to reveal order in nature and as a tool for communication among scientists.
• Quick look at an organized system of soil classification - the U. S. Soil Taxonomy
  • names as mnemonic aids (derived from Greek and Latin) - world soil maps - sensing the big picture
  • US maps-scaling the pedosphere regional, state, county maps
• Are soils scale dependent?

B. SOILS - ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITIES EXTRAORDINAIRE

• Soils
  • as blocks of memory in space and time
  • as mediators of dynamic processes
• Information as functional relationships
  • knowledge as sets of functional relationships
  • uncertainty and probability - constant companions in science
• Soil information/knowledge - based on functional relationships that offer acceptable explanations of observable/measurable phenomena
  • some examples of relationships texture profiles, water holding, exchange properties developing your own rule-of-thumb relationships
• How to unlock the memory of soils - searching for the stories that could be told
  • looking at a profile - some simple things to see and feel - color, rooting, firmness/softness, aggregation, texture
  • learn to think like drops of water - where to go and why
  • using depth patterns as ways to get inside the mind of a soil
  • collecting physical/chemical data - or interpreting existing data ... examples of depth functions and some possible relationships to explore
• What a soil can tell you about its landscape
  • soils make very complex patterns in space and time
  • history of landscape evolution (geomorphology) is your best friend to unravel patterns of soils
  • landscapes @ 1:20,000 have wonderful stories - their formation and development reveal the interactions of spheres (litho-, bio-, hydro- atmo-, pedo-, and noo-)
  • Soils are the frosting, the mantle, the living skin of the earth system
• A small river system example
  • landscape components, associated soils
  • the story of events and happenings
  • putting it all together
• Variability - trying to organize our understanding
  • systematic patterns ... mappable
  • random patterns ... describable, not mappable
  • examples of soils maps and how they may mislead the uninformed, how legends are designed and defined
  • finding a whole new source of resource information - soil survey reports

C. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PEDOSPHERE - THE PERMAFROST ZONE

• Shifting Patterns of temperature and rainfall
  • when and how much - only hints of what's coming
  • concern is man's attempts to mitigate influence on pedosphere
• Effects of concern
  • the production and carrier functions (where and how to produce food for increasing population,
  • protecting living space as sea level rises, changing biodiversity shelters (sinks and sources)
• Can soils buffer the green house gas effects for man?
• Going where few have trod. Cryosols/|Gelisols - the cold pedosphere
  • What is permafrost? frozen ground
  • Where does it occur? Circumpolar distribution
  • Gelisols - Histels ... organic soils with permafrost; Turbels ... cryoturbated soils with permafrost; Haplels ... static mineral soils with permafrost
• A trip from Inuvik, Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska
  • land uses, urban concerns and solutions, soils, landscapes, vegetation, transportation, engineering, agriculture
• Searching for GLOBE partners to help collect data on Gelisols/Cryosols

D. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PEDOSPHERE - DESERT MARGINS

• Sensitivity of margins
  • areas of high information content - information theory, redundant data
  • where to monitor for change
• Sahel region in Africa - migrations, droughts, starvation and famine, disaster, people pressures crossing thresholds of nature
• Landscape development in drier areas
  • evidence of geologic erosion and deposition, stories hidden in soils
  • the march of climates and vegetation throughout time
• Ancient civilizations -many records preserved of man's struggle to survive in these margins. On all continents in every nook and cranny, the cultural function of soils has been important. It may still be?
• Major systems (partially closed) of biogeochemical cycling
  • watershed from water source to final sinks
  • patterns within patterns of interactions
  • soluble components in soil systems
• Examples of soils/landscapes/society in some margins
  • western China - near Urumqi
  • western US - northern vs. southern areas

E. MYTHS ARE STORIES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN - SOME FACTS ABOUT SOILS IN THE TROPICS

• Soils in the tropics have their own stories to tell
  • there is great diversity of soils , many ages, many geomorphic events, great variety of kinds of parent materials
  • the mixture of factors of soil formation is as great, maybe more so than other regions
  • geologically the poles have wandered - taking the tropics to other parts of our planet- earth system history is incomplete but fantastic
• Those soil materials that are highly weathered - the Oxisols
  • there are some unique, special soils in the tropics they occur on most continents......map showing Oxisols
• Properties of these kinds of soils - physical, chemical, biological
  • some definitions, some examples
• Different kinds of Oxisols - they aren't all the same
  • why management practices differ
  • how the soils are used
  • kinds of common crops
• Examples from South America, Africa, and Asia
  • illustrate the richness, the importance, and the potential of these portions of the pedosphere

F. EVERYBODY IS SOMEBODY'S NEIGHBOR - WHAT SOILS ARE IN YOUR BACKYARD?

• Soils are a direct tie to your ancestors - or at least to those who were at this location before you were
• Who were the early people in your area?
  • What do you know about their use of land, water, vegetation?
  • Did they grow food - what kinds, where, why?
• What functions of soils seemed to be important for your predecessors?
  • What functions seem to be important for you today?
  • What about the future?
• Get help learning about the landforms near your school/your community.
  • Make maps of them - on topo or photo bases.
  • How did these landscapes form and develop.?
• Soils often are similar to sediments.
  • They mantle the landscape surfaces.
  • The surface layers move downslope faster than subsoils, the surface receives aerosols and sediments, the surface erodes by wind and water.
  • the profile of a soil often has clues - bits of evidence of its past.
• Why not look at soil as though it wants to share its story with you?
• Geologic changes -climate, vegetation, materials, erosion, deposition, etc.
  • tell us about the past and help us understand the spatial patterns within the pedosphere
• Soil properties - the basis for finding relationships with today's dynamic processes
  • filtering, buffering, supplying nutrients, supplying toxicants, partitioning water, supporting man's engineering feats and serving as source materials
• Thinking about processes that might go on in soils
  • biological richness almost beyond belief - and we know so little. Is C sequestration a possibility in your soils
  • how, why, for how long, is there a limit?
• What's going on in your soils?
  • What do you accept as evidence of the processes?
  • Do you monitor any of them?
  • Are there different temporal properties -daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, annually, decadal, over centuries?
  • What properties can change at which time scales - how do you know?
• Soils do not have to be strangers . They can be friends.
  • Understanding, searching for explanations, marveling at the wonders of nature. Having reverence for the sanctity of our Mother Earth. Helping each other with stewardship. Sustainability just may be the social acceptance of stewardship - and you are a teacher.

G. WHEN HUMANKIND MAKES NEW SOILS WILL YOUR KIDS KNOW WHY?

• Some global driving forces that are affecting our lives
  • increasing population, pressure on food supplies, pressure on arable land which is finite
  • scarcity of water - distribution of quantity and quality among stakeholders, lack of clear policies
  • changing supplies of energy - fossil fuels, solar, wind, water, human power, conservation of energy
  • climate changes regardless of cause - but exacerbated by human actions - shift of seasonality, extreme events, droughts, floods, intensity of storms, etc.
  • finiteness of natural resources - inequitable distributions impacts on economic development and world trade
• Food security, human nutrition, human health, poverty
  • social problems expand, consume more of the world's resources and eventually our attention
  • the world's poor are a disgrace to a world that can be high tech yet unwilling to provide adequate policies to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants
• When certain thresholds are crossed, society decides that creating improved arable land is part of the solution
  • providing food for more people is obtained from marginal land conversions (forests to crops, range to crops, swamps to crops, etc.)
  • from the creation of new soils
• Concept of ideal arable soils; concept of arable new soils
  • properties needed to adequately perform a production function
  • aeration, permeability, water and nutrient supply, biological activity, stability, sustainability, environmental safety
• Some examples of mankind's modifications
  • Yemen rock terraces
  • Philippine terraces at Banaue
  • rice padis in SE Asia
  • mixing materials for citrus in EC China
  • profile of layered soils
  • reclamation after mining
  • draining wetland
  • intensive vegetable production near cities (night soils)
  • irrigation schemes
• The urban dilemma
  • anthropogenic soils in urban environments ... most soils disturbed to varying degrees
  • vegetable garden concerns about lead paint and lead water pipes, organic contaminants
  • maintaining parks, greenspaces for mental and physical health - Central Park, NYC
  • urban sprawl into surrounding lands - conflicts
  • protection of prime farmland - purchasing rights for use
  • pressure of the future
• WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR WHOM?

Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in Environmental Science lpt@www.woodrow.org
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation webmaster@woodrow.org
CN 5281, Princeton NJ 08543-5281 Tel:(609)452-7007 Fax:(609)452-0066