soil conditioners

Alfisols form under forest vegetation where the parent material has undergone significant weathering. These soils are quite widespread in their distribution and are found from southern Florida to northern Minnesota. The most distinguishing characteristics of this soil type are the illuviation of clay in the B horizon, moderate to high concentrations of base cations, and light-colored surface horizons. * organic - this soil is mainly composed of organic matter in various stages of decomposition. organic soils are common in fens and bogs. The profiles of these soils have an obvious absence of mineral soil particles. Figure 7: Chernozemic Landscape (Prairies). (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996) The most general category of the NRCS Soil Classification System recognizes eleven distinct soil orders: oxisols, aridsols, mollisols, alfisols, ultisols, spodsols, entisols, inceptisols, vertisols, histosols, and andisols.

Figure 19: Immature Regosolic Landscape (Floodplain British Columbia). (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996) * Regosol - is any young underdeveloped soil. Immature soils are common in geomorphically dynamic environments. Many mountain river valleys in British Columbia have floodplains with surface deposits that are less than 3,000 years old. The soils in these environments tend to be regosols. Figure 8: Chernozen Profile. (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996) * Cryosol - is a high-latitudes soil common in the tundra. This soil has a layer of permafrost within one meter of the soil surface. The image in Figure 7 is of tundra landscape dominated by moss and lichen vegetation. The soil profile has a permanently frozen ice wedge beneath its surface. Spodsols are soils that develop under coniferous vegetation and as a result are modified by podzolization. Parent materials of these soils tend to be rich in sand. The litter of the coniferous vegetation is low in base cations and contributes to acid accumulations in the soil. In these soils, mixtures of organic matter and aluminum, with or without iron, accumulate in the B horizon. The A horizon of these soils normally has an eluvial layer that has the color of more or less quartz sand. Most spodosols have little silicate clay and only small quantities of humus in their A horizon. Inceptisols are young soils that are more developed than entisols. These soils are found in arctic tundra environments, glacial deposits, and relatively recent deposits of stream alluvium. Common characteristics of recognition include immature development of eluviation in the A horizon and illuviation in the B horizon, and evidence of the beginning of weathering processes on parent material sediments. Figure 8: Chernozen Profile. (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996)