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APES

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
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Question
Answer
what is soil?   relatively thin surface layer of the Earth’s crust  
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What does soil consist of?   mineral and organic matter that is affected by agents such as weather, wind, water, and organism  
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What are the 4 distinct parts of soil?   mineral particles, organic matter, water, air  
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What percent of soil is mineral particles?   45%  
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What percent of soil is organic matter?   5%  
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What percent of soil is water?   25%  
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What percent of soil is air?   25%  
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Why is soil important to microorganisms?   inhabit the soil & depend on it for shelter, food & water  
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Why is soil important to plants?   Plants anchor themselves into the soil, and get their nutrients and water  
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Why is soil important to terrestrial plants   could not survive without soil, therefore, humans could not exist without soil either  
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Is soil a renewable or nonrenewable resource?   Renewable resource  
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What does soil provide nutrients for?   for plant growth and also helps purify water  
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What is weathering?   Soil formation begins when bedrock is broken down by physical, chemical and biological processes  
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What are mature soils?   soils that have developed over a long time  
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What are soil horizons   a series of horizontal layers  
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How is the parent material of soil formed?   The rock that has slowly broken down into smaller particles by biological, chemical, and physical weathering  
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How long does it take parent material to form?   To form 2.5 cm (1 in.) it may take from 200-1000 years  
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What are examples of physical weathering?   Erosion (wind, water, ice, etc)  
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List some examples of chemical weathering   A plant’s roots or animal cells undergo cell respiration and the CO2 produced diffuses into soil, reacts with H2O & forms carbonic acid (H2CO3). This eats parts of the rock away  
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What produces new soil?   decomposition  
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Where is soil NOT renewable   in tropical rainforests  
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Why isn't soil renewable in tropical rain forests?   all of the nutrients are caught in the trees and when cut down & burned the soil cannot get the nutrients back  
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How do you measure soil with texture   The percentages (by weight) of different sized particles of sand, silt and clay that it contains  
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What is the texture of gravel/stones   >2mm in diameter  
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What is the texture of sand   0.05 to 2mm  
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Which has the larger soil particles?   Sand  
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What is the soil texture of silt?   .002 to .05 mm  
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What is about the size of flour and barely visible with the eye?   Silt  
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What is the soil texture of clay?   <.002mm  
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Which soil texture has the greatest surface value and can only be seen under an electronic microscope?   Clay  
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Why is gravel/stones not actually considered soil?   it doesn’t have direct value to plants  
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What does it mean if soil is gritty?   It has a lot of sand  
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What does it mean is soil is sticky?   high clay content and you should be able to roll it into a clump  
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What does it mean if soil is smooth, like flour?   It is silt  
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What is the structure of soil?   How soil particles are organized and clumped together. (Sand, silt, clay)  
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What is Friability in soil?   How easily the soil can be crumbled  
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What is the Porosity in soil?   A measure of the volume of soil and the average distances between the spaces  
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What is Permeability in soil   The rate at which water and air moves from upper to lower soil layers. It is distances between those spaces  
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How do soils vary?   in the size of the particles they contain, the amount of space between these particles, and how rapidly water flows through them  
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What is shrink well potential?   Some soils, like clays, swell when H2O gets in them, then they dry and crack. This is bad for house foundations, etc.  
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What is the pH of most soils?   4.0 to 8.0  
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What is the pH of the Pygmy Forest in California?   extremely acidic with 2.8 to 3.9  
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What is the pH of Death Valley California?   very basic 10.5  
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Why are plants affected by pH   because of the solubility of nutrient minerals  
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Why do steep slopes have little or no soil on them?   because of gravity  
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What does runoff from precipitation do to a slope?   it erodes it  
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What do moderate slopes and valleys encourage?   the formation of deep soils  
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Where are soils very shallow in texas?   San Antonio  
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Soil depth can range from?   2 inches of soil then rock or 36 inches deep of soil  
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What does dark soil say?   it is rich with lots of organic matter  
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What does light soil like sand say?   not so rich with very little organic matter  
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What is the uppermost layer of the soil called?   O-horizon/Organic Layer  
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What is the O-horizon/Organic layer rich in?   organic material  
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What accumulates in the O-horizon?   plant litter and it gradually decays  
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When is the O-horizon completely absent?   in desert soils  
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When is the O-horizon a dominant layer?   in certain organically rich soils  
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What is horizon is top soil?   A-horizon  
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What is topsoil/A-horizon?   dark and rich in accumulated organic matter and humus  
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What horizon/layer has a granular texture?   Topsoil/A-horizon  
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Why is topsoil/A-horizon some what nutrient poor?   due to the loss of many nutrient minerals to deeper layers and by leaching  
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Which layer is the B horizon?   the sub soil layer  
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What is subsoil/B-horizon?   The light-colored subsoil beneath the A-horizon  
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Why is subsoil/B-horizon often a zone of illuviation?   nutrient minerals have leached out of the topsoil and litter accumulate  
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Which soil layer is typically rich in iron and aluminum compounds and clay?   Subsoil/ B-horizon  
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Which layer is the C-horizon?   Parent Material  
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What is in the C-horizon/Parent material?   contains weathered pieces of rock and borders the unweathered solid parent material  
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Why is C-horizon/Parent material often saturated with ground water?   Most roots do not go down this deep  
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What happens during Infiltration?   the downward movement of water through soil  
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What happens during Leaching?   dissolving of minerals and organic matter in upper layers carrying them to lower layers  
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What does soil type determine?   the degree of infiltration and leaching  
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What are macronutrients?   larger in atomic structure  
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What are examples of macronutrients?   Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium  
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What are examples of micronutrients?   Selenium, Zinc, Iron  
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What are micronutrients?   smaller in atomic structure  
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What are organic fertilizers?   animal manure, crop residues, bone meal, and compost  
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What are inorganic fertilizers?   man-made from chemical compounds  
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What are benefits of inorganic fertilizers?   exact compositions are known; they are soluble & thus immediately available to the plant  
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What are the costs of inorganic fertilizers?   quickly leach away; this pollutes the water; doesn’t help the water holding capacity of the soil like organic fertilizers do  
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How much soil is eroded in the US each year?   6.4 billion tons  
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How much would 6.4 billion tons fill up   this would fill 320 million average-sized dump trucks that, if parked end-to-end, would extend to the moon and ¾ of the way back  
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What is erosion   the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil, from one place to another  
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What do the roots of plants do in undisturbed ecosystems?   help anchor the soil  
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What destroys plant cover and leaves soil vulnerable to erosion?   farming, logging, construction, overgrazing by livestock, off-road vehicles, deliberate burning of vegetation  
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Destroying soil in a few decades ruins solid that took how long to produce?   what nature took hundreds to thousands of years to produce  
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Soil erosion lowers what?   soil fertility  
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Soil erosion can overload what?   nearby bodies of water eroded with sediment  
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What is sheet erosion?   surface water or wind peel off thin layers of soil  
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What is rill erosion?   fast flowing little rivulets of surface water make small channels  
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What is gully erosion?   fast-flowing water join together to cut wider and deeper ditches or gullies  
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Soil is eroding at what rate?   faster than it is forming on more than one-third of the world’s cropland  
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Soil erodes faster than it forms on most U.S. cropland, but since 1985   it has decreased by 40%  
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What happened in the 1985 Food Security Act (Farm Act)?   farmers receive a subsidy for taking highly erodible land out of production and replanting it with soil saving plants for 10-15 years  
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What is splash (water erosion)?   water hits the soil at a severe angle (based on slope) which can erode soil  
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What is sheet (water erosion)?   when surface water moves down a slope or across a field in a wide flow and peels off fairly uniform sheets of soil.  
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What happens to topsoil during sheet erosion?   it disappears evenly, and may not be noticeable until too much damage has been done  
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What is mass slippage (water erosion)?   very wet and large amounts of soil slip away in large chunks called mud slides ex-California  
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What is Rill (water erosion)?   concentrated flow across the surface of soil. its leaves rivets called micro channels  
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Where does gully erosion happen?   on steep slopes where all or most vegetation has been removed.  
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What is saltation?   One particle hitting another and being blown across the surface of the soil  
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What is suspension?   airborne soil. ex- soil from lubbock is found in temple texas  
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What is surface creep?   mountains/sand dunes; surface creeping slowly across. Landslides are an example of a very fast surface creep  
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How much productivity of the worlds land has been lost due to degraded topsoil?   One third  
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What are the causes of desertification in degrading drylands?   Overgrazing, deforestation, erosion, salinization, soil compaction, natural climate change  
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What are the consequences of desertification in degrading drylands?   worsening drought, famine, economic losses, lower living standards, environmental refugees  
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Repeated irrigation can reduce crop yields by causing what?   salt buildup in the soil and water logging of crop plants  
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What happens during salinization?   irrigation water contains small amounts of dissolved salts, evaporation and transpiration leave salts behind, salt builds up in soil  
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What happens during water logging?   Precipitation and irrigation water percolate downward, the water table rises  
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What are ways to reduce soil salinization?   Reduce irrigation and switch to salt tolerant crops such as barley, cotton, and sugarbeet  
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What are ways to cleanup soil salinization?   Flush soil(expensive and wastes water), stop growing crop for 2-5 years, install underground drainage systems (expensive)  
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White alkaline salts have   displaced cops  
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What are shelter belts and what do they reduce?   can reduce wind erosion. Long rows of trees are planted to partially block the wind.  
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What can shelter belts help to do?   retain soil moisture, supply some wood for fuel, and provide habitats for birds  
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What is minimum tillage?   (conservation tillage) to disturb the soil as little as possible while planting crops  
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What happens during minimum tillage?   Special tillers break up and loosen the subsurface soil without turning over the topsoil, previous crop residues, and any cover vegetation  
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Fertilizers can help do what?   restore soil nutrients  
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What can runoff of inorganic fertilizers cause?   water pollution  
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What are hydrophonic crops?   crops grown in fertilized water  
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What soil is best for plant growth?   Loam  
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When does leaching occur?   when humus is dissolved and chemical compounds carried to lower layers  
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What is not a consequence of desertification?   abundant crop harvests  
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