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Soils

Information about soils in agriculture and forestry, as well as soil science in general. Potential topics include soil genesis and morphology, soil classification and mapping, soil fertility, soil conservation (including erosion), soil management and modifications, and interpretation of soil characteristics.

Sites advertising products to be applied in soils in order to improve its chemical, physical or physical-chemical characteristics should be submitted to appropriate categories in Business or Shopping. Sites oriented exclusively to the home gardener should go to Homes/Gardens.

Sites in languages other than English should be submitted to the appropriate category of World

Academic Departments

This category is for sites relating to educational establishments providing research or courses on soils in agriculture.

Sites in languages other than English should be submitted to the appropriate category of World

Erosion

This category is for sites concerned with the erosion of soils by wind and water.

Please submit only sites that refer specifically to wind or water erosion. If your business operates in a limited area, it may be best submitted to the appropriate Business and Economy category under Regional. Submitting to an incorrect category may delay review of your site.

Products and Services

Information about, and vendors of, specialized instrumentation and supplies for making measurements in soils. Includes devices for measuring soil moisture, pH, and other properties relevant to plant growth or the suitability of the soil for growing plants or animal food.

NOTE CATEGORY DESCRIPTION

Sites dealing with instruments specifically for collecting soil samples should be submitted to Science/Environment/Environmental_Monitoring/Products_for_Sampling_and_Monitoring/Soil_and_Sediment.

Sites for laboratories conducting geotechnical testing on soils may be submitted to Science/Technology/Civil_Engineering/Geotechnical/Test_Facilities/

Publications

This category contains electronic publications such as books, journals, abstracts and research papers relevant to soil science. These can be interactive or downloadable.

Soil Fertility and Fertilizers

It relates sites dealing with Soil Fertility, Plant Nutrition, Fertilizers and Fertilization of agricultural soils.

Soil Fertility and Fertilizers is one of the most important topics in Soil Science. Its understanding is of great importance in order to adequately produce commercial crops.

Soil Morphology, Classification and Survey

# What are Soil Morphology, Classification and Survey? Soil Morphology, Classification and Survey are three intimately related sub-disciplines of soil science. They are used one after the other: 1. DESCRIBING and MEASURING soil properties in one or several places (for instance its physical, chemical and biological characteristics, or its internal organisation). Although each example is related to another "Soils" sub-discipline, the overall process is often related as "SOIL MORPHOLOGY" 2. Once soil properties have been measured, it is possible to try to interpret them: What are the main traits of the soil morphology? How does behaves this soil (water flow, etc.)? How the soil has been formed (that is its "pedogenesis") and on which parental materials? As there are infinite variations in soil properties, soil scientist often CLASSIFY soils in CATEGORIES/CLASSES. They have built CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS that operates at various scales: international, national or regional. 3. What often interest farmers, agronomists or soil scientists is usually not a "local" description, but a more "global" view of soil (at the plot or the region scale): It is the soil MAPPING/SURVEY process. Not only soil mapping does rely on soil classification to present the survey results in a readable way, but it also involves a complex "interpolation" methods, aiming at predicting how is the soil in unsampled location. # Dmoz users will find here resources on each of the above mentioned topic: - Guidelines for soil description (see Soils sub-categories for more specific soil properties); - Reference guides for soil classification; - Reference guides for soil mapping; - Soil survey information: Soil and soil properties maps and databases; - etc. etc. These reference are often available for various countries (and international institutions). # It is good to keep in mind that soil survey/maps often serves as basis for DERIVED MAPS of specific soil properties, for various purposes: Soil aptitude to cultivation, waste amendment; Soil susceptibility to water logging or erosion; Aptitude of the soil to degrade mobile pollutants (or its contrary, risks of pollutant leaching); etc. etc. Such topic will only be placed in this category if they are not presented in other Dmoz categories. # Finally, it worth citing a few synonyms or related topics for "Soil Morphology, Classification or Survey" - Digital Soil Mapping (this term embraces all the new computer-based quantitative techniques being developed for mapping soils); - Soil geography; - Land resources (Soils are only one of these resources); - Pedology (closely, but not exclusively related to soil morphology, classification and survey); - Pedogenesis (idem) [please e-mail the category editor for any suggestion about this Description]