SOIL SCIENCE & GEOLOGY SOIL RESOURCE

PRINCIPLES OF SOIL SCIENCE

Asst. Prof. Jeam Catague

Overview
This chapter covers the introduction of soil science and discusses its
importance to other disciplines. This includes the principles of studying soil
science - approaches, divisions, and history.

Hence, this chapter will be divided into four (4) parts:

• Define soil
• Soil and its functions
• Soil science
• Historical background

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:
• Define soil and its nature and properties;
• Discuss a unified view of the soil as a medium for plant growth and as
a natural resource;
• Describe the importance of soil;
• Describe the functions of soil;
• Discuss the history of soil science;
• Discuss the importance of studying soil science;
• Classify the division of soil science; and
• Define and describe the physical, chemical, and biological properties of
soil

Lesson 1:

Define Soil
The soil is one of the most important and indispensable natural
resources of any country. Man's basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing, are
directly or indirectly derived from the soil. For instance, rice, corn,
vegetables, and other staple foods are directly derived from the soil. Meat,
pork, and eggs come from animals that feed upon the produce of the soil.
Woods are grown from the soil, while nails, cement, and aluminum roofing
are made of materials from the soil. The silk used for making clothes comes
from silkworms that feed on mulberry leaves which are grown from the soil.

This lesson introduces the soil.

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General Definition
We can define soil as a mixture of a collection of porous natural bodies,
containing organic and inorganic materials which developed on the surface
of the earth’s surface and synthesized in a profile form through weathering
process of rocks and minerals and whose properties are conditioned in
various degrees by the influence of climate, living organisms, and topography
acting on the parent material over a period.

Soil is also the biologically active, porous medium that has developed
in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust. Soil is one of the principal substrata
of life on Earth, serving as a reservoir of water and nutrients, as a medium
for the filtration and breakdown of injurious wastes, and as a participant in
the cycling of carbon and other elements through the global ecosystem.

Soil as Natural Body

The soil is not artificially made (man-made). It is a natural body formed
from the decayed organic substance and the physical and chemical
weathered naturally-occurring rocks and minerals as influenced by the
natural environment and formed in a sequence of layers that provides
sustenance for the development of a plant. Hence, the soil layer have varying
composition and properties which also differs among themselves as well as
from the underlying parent material.

Soil as Dynamic Body

Soil is a dynamic body because its composition and properties change
with time and with changes in the environment which, in turn, influence soil
conditions. For instance, young soil has composition and properties different
from old soil.

The soil has both static and dynamic properties:

• Static properties – are intrinsic to the material itself and are
unaffected by any external variables.
• Dynamic properties – are manifested in the response of the body to
externally imposed effects such as mechanical stresses tending to cause
deformation and failure or the entry of water.

Phase System
The soil is a three-phase system and consists of solids (organic and
mineral matter) liquid, and gas phases, Soil solid is a mixture of weathered
rock and organic particles that occupy about 50% of the soil’s volume. The
soil phase can be divided into 2: (1) organic matter and (2) mineral matter.

The remaining soil volume, about 50%, is pore space (also called
voids), composed of pores of varying shapes and sizes. These pores are
occupied by the liquid and gas phases. Water is often the predominant liquid
and air is the predominant gas. Thus, the terms water and air are also often
used instead of liquid and gas. The soil water is called porewater and plays a
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very important role in the behavior of soils under load. If all the
pore spaces are filled by water, the soil is saturated. Otherwise, the soil is
unsaturated. If all the voids are filled with air, the soil is said to be dry.

The distribution of the 4 physical components (organic and mineral

matter, liquid, and gas) varies among soils. In an ideal loam soil, the
inorganic or mineral matter constitutes 45%; organic matter, 5%; air and
water, 25% each.

The amount of each of the four major components of the soil depends
on the quantity of vegetation, soil compaction, and water present in the soil.
Good, healthy soil has sufficient air, water, minerals, and organic material
to promote and sustain plant life.
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Lesson 2:

Soil and its Functions

This lesson introduces what is soil and its functions.

Regulates Plant Growth

Soils support plant growth, by providing habitat for plant roots and
nutrient elements for the entire plant. Soil composition and properties
influence the growth of plants. Thus, soil properties often determine the
nature of the vegetation present and, indirectly, the number and types of
animals (including people) that the vegetation can support.

Soil serves as a medium of plant growth from physical support for the
anchorage of plant roots to water and nutrient supplier. Here are the various
soil supports for plants:
• Physical support
• Water
• Protection from toxins
• Air
• Temperature moderation
• Nutrient elements

Provide Physical Support

The soil is the medium that anchors or provides physical support to the
root system of the plant so it does not fall over or blow away. Occasionally,
strong wind or heavy rain does topple a plant whose root system has been
restricted by shallow or inhospitable soil conditions.

Provide Water
Soil pores are responsible for absorbing and holding eater that can be
uptake easily by plants’ roots. A deep soil may store enough water to allow
plants to survive long periods without rain.
Plant require water continuously for transpiration (cooling), nutrient
transport, turgor maintenance, and photosynthesis. Hence, the water-
holding capacity of soils id essential for plant survival.

Provide Protection from Toxins

Phytotoxic substances in soils may result from human activity (such as
chemical spills or herbicide application), or they may be produced by plant
roots, microorganisms, or by natural chemical reactions. Many soil managers
consider it a function of good soil to protect plants from such substances by
ventilating gases, decomposing, or adsorbing organic toxins, or suppressing
toxin-producing organisms. At the same time, some microorganisms in the
soil indeed produce organic, growth-stimulating compounds. These
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substances, when taken up by plants in small amounts, may improve plant

vigor.

Provide Aeration
Roots can respire through networks of soil pores which produce carbon
dioxide (CO2) and use oxygen (O2). This important function of the soil is
called ventilation— maintaining the quantity and quality of air by allowing
CO2 to escape and fresh O2 to enter the root zone.

Moderate Temperature
The soil can moderate temperature fluctuations. The insulating
properties of soil protect the deeper portion of the root system from extremes
of hot and cold that often occur. Soil acts as a blanket to the roots that keep
them warm during extreme cold, while it undergoes capillary rise during
extreme heat to provide moisture.

Provide Nutrient Elements

Fertile soil will provide a continuous supply of dissolved mineral
nutrients in amounts and relative proportions appropriate for optimal plant
growth. These nutrients include such macronutrients as nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, as well as such
micronutrients as boron, chlorine, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, and
molybdenum.

Roots take these elements out of the soil solution and the plant
incorporates most of them into the organic compounds that constitute its
tissues. Animals usually obtain their mineral nutrients from the soil,
indirectly, by eating plants. Under some circumstances, animals (including
humans) satisfy their craving for minerals by ingesting soil directly. Plants
also take up some elements that they do not appear to use, which is fortunate
as animals do require several elements that plants do not.

Plants can be grown in nutrient solutions without any soil (a method

termed hydroponics), but then the plant-support functions of soils must
be engineered into the system and maintained at a high cost of time, energy,
and management.

Controls the Fate of Water

Soil controls the fate of water in the hydrologic system and serves as its
reservoir. If the soil allows the rain to soak in, some of the water will be stored
in the soil, some used by the trees, and some will seep slowly down through
the soil layers to the groundwater, eventually entering the river over months
or years as base flow. As it soaks through the upper layers of soil,
contaminated water is purified and cleansed by soil processes that remove
many impurities and kill potential disease organisms.
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Contrast the preceding scenario with what would occur if the soil were
so shallow or impermeable that most of the rain could not penetrate the soil,
but ran off the land surface, scouring surface soil and debris as it sped toward
the river. The result would be a destructive flash flood of muddy
contaminated water.

This comparison highlights how the nature and management of soils in

a watershed will influence the purity and amount of water finding its way to
aquatic systems.

Habitat
Soils are alive and are home to creatures from small mammals and
reptiles to tiny insects to microorganisms of unimaginable numbers and
diversity. A handful of soil may be home to billions of organisms, belonging
to thousands of species of organisms such as roundworms, diatoms, rotifers,
bacteria swim, tiny insects, and mites. Thus, the soil is not just a pile of
broken rock and dead debris.

Recycling System
Soil is natures’ recycling system. Recycling is vital to ecosystems,
whether forests, farms, or cities. The waste products and dead bodies of
plants, animals, and people are assimilated and decomposed within the soil.
Without the decomposition process, the whole planet would be covered with
a layer, and possibly hundreds of meters high of plant and animal wastes and
corpses.

Soil serves as a reservoir of nutrients and the soil system plays a pivotal
role in the major geochemical cycles. Soils can assimilate great quantities of
organic waste, and its basic elements are made available for reuse by the next
generation of life. Without the reuse of nutrients, plants, and animals would
have run out of nourishment long ago.
Some soils can store large amount of carbon as soil organic matter, thus
reducing the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and potentially
mitigating global climate change.

In addition, soil also serves as a protective covering for human artifacts

for centuries before they are unearthed by archeologists. .

Relationship With Atmosphere

Soil markedly influences the composition and physical condition of the
atmosphere by taking up and releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide,
oxygen, and other gasses and by contributing dust and re-radiated heat
energy to the air.
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Soils absorb oxygen and other gases such as methane, while they
release gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. These gas exchanges
between the soil and the atmosphere have a significant influence on
atmospheric composition and global climate change. The evaporation of soil
moisture is a major source of water vapor in the atmosphere, altering air
temperature, composition, and weather patterns.

In places where the soil is dry, poorly structured, and unvegetated, soil
particles can be picked up by winds and contribute great quantities of dust
to the atmosphere, reducing visibility, increasing human health hazards from
breathing dirty air, and altering the temperature of the air and of the Earth
itself. Moist, well-vegetated, and structured soils can prevent such dust-
laden air.

Engineering Medium
Soil plays an important role as an engineering medium. Soil is not only
important building material in the form of earth fill and bricks (baked soil
material) but provides the foundation for virtually every road, airport, and
house we build.

Soil is one of the earliest and most widely used building materials.
Nearly half the people in the world live in houses constructed from the soil.
Soil buildings vary from traditional African mud huts to large centuries-old
circular apartment houses in China to today’s environmentally-friendly
“rammed-earth” buildings. Unfortunately, some soils are not as stable as
others. Reliable construction on soils, and with soil materials, requires
knowledge of the diversity of soil properties.

Designs for roadbeds or building foundations that work well in one

location on one type of soil may be inappropriate for another location with
different soils. Working with natural soils or excavated soil materials is not
like working with concrete or steel. Properties such as bearing strength,
compressibility, shear strength, and stability are much more variable and
difficult to predict for soils than for manufactured building materials.
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Lesson 3:

PROPERTIES OF SOIL
Soil physical Properties
Soil physics is the study of soil's physical properties and processes.
Physical properties are the most visible and can be observed without using
equipment and without changing the composition of the soil. These
properties are reflective of the solid soil particles and how they are arranged.
They also can be used to define and classify soil types and horizons. Here are
some of the physical properties of soil:

• Soil color is the soil aspect that may be described in terms of hue,
value (lightness), and chroma (saturation). It is typically described
using some form of color reference chart, such as the Munsell Color
Chart.
• Soil texture refers to the proportion of sand, silt, and clay-sized
particles that make up the mineral fraction of the soil.
• Soil structure is defined by the way individual particles of sand, silt,
and clay are assembled. Single particles when assembled appear as
larger particles. These are called aggregates.
• Soil density measures the mass per unit volume of soil. It is often
used as an indirect description of the quality of the soil and is often a
parameter to determine the compaction of the soil.
• Soil porosity describes the volume of small voids between particles
of soil. In healthy soil, these pores are large and plentiful enough to
retain the water, oxygen, and nutrients that plants need to absorb
through their roots.
• Soil water describes the amount of water and how it enters the soil.
• Soil consistency describes the strength with which soil materials are
held together or the resistance of soils to deformation and rupture. Soil
consistency is measured for wet, moist, and dry soil samples. For wet
soils, it is expressed as both stickiness and plasticity.
• Soil strength is the capacity of a soil mass to withstand stresses
without rupturing or becoming deformed.
• Soil aeration discusses the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide
between the soil pore space and the atmosphere, to prevent the
deficiency of oxygen and/or toxicity of carbon dioxide in the soil air.
The well-aerated soil contains enough oxygen for the respiration of
roots and aerobic microbes and for oxidation reactions to proceed at
the optimum rate.
• Soil temperature is simply the measurement of the warmth in the
soil

Soil Chemical Properties

The chemical properties represent the complex chemical reactions,
compositions, and processes occurring in the soils. They represent nutrient
availability, deficiency, toxicity, salinity, and sodicity just to name a few.
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Almost all of the properties require field equipment or lab analysis for
measurement. Here are some of the chemical properties of soil:
• Soil colloids can be defined as the inorganic and organic particles of
soil with a diameter less than 1μm.
• Cation exchange capacity (or CEC) is a measure of a given soil’s
capacity to retain or store positively charged ions.
• Base saturation is the percentage of the CEC occupied by basic
cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+).
• Soil pH (soil acidity) is an indicator of how acidic, neutral, or
alkaline (basic) a soil is, based on the hydrogen ion concentration –
where pH is reported as a negative logarithm and ranges from 0-14.
• Soil EC (Electrical Conductivity) is a measure of the concentration
of ions from water-soluble salts in soils, and the test results are
indicative of soil salinity.

Soil Biological Properties

Physical and chemical soil properties are both characteristics of the soil
that are defined by the arrangement and composition of the soil particle.
These two influence the flow of water and life, which turns to the
development of soil's biological properties.

Biological properties represent the direct and indirect influence of the

living organisms inhabiting a particular soil. Soil's biological properties
reflect how well-suited soil is to support life. Here are some of the biological
properties of soil:
• Soil biomass is composed of all living organisms and materials that
have arisen from their decomposition. It is divided into live (micro-and
macroscopic organisms, plant roots, and subsurface stems) and
residual biomass (organic matter from decomposing plants and
animals).
• Soil organic matter is the fraction of the soil that consists of plant
or animal tissue in various stages of breakdown (decomposition).
• Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio (C: N) in the soil is the ratio of the mass
of carbon to nitrogen.
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Lesson 4
Study of Soil
Soil science is the branch of science concerned with the formation,
nature, ecology, and classification of soil. And in this lesson, we’ll introduce
the two (2) approaches to studying soil: the soil as a plant medium, the
edaphological approach; and soil as a natural body, the pedological
approach.

Edaphological Approach
Edaphology (Gr., edaphos, “soil or ground”) is the study of soils as a
habitat for plants and other organisms. It is also the study of soils with
emphasis on their practical use, particularly the relationship of soil
properties to plant growth. Soil fertility is the primary concern and the focus
is on physical and chemical attributes of the soil important for plant growth
with little regard for conditions external to the rooting medium.

Pedological Approach
Pedology (Gr., pedon, “soil, or earth”) focuses on the study of soil as
a geologic entity or the study of soils with principal interest in
characterization and differentiation of their properties and with only minor
emphasis on their practical use. It is the study of soils in their natural setting.

This approach covers the beginning and development of soils (soil

genesis), morphology, and their classification. It also focuses on soil
morphology, soil-forming factors, soil-forming processes, soil classification,
and soil geography and mapping. This was the result when the Soil Science
Society of America shortened the name, “Soil Genesis, Morphology, and
Classification” division into Pedology.
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Lesson 5

Division of Soil Science

Based on the main division of soil science - pedology and edaphology,
soil can also be subdivided into different fields of specialization. These
various subdivisions are more in-deep concepts of soil properties and their
management.

Soil Genesis
Soil genesis is a science that deals with soil formation. This field has
three conceptual phases: (1) soil as a geologic entity, (2) soil as a product of
factors and processes of soil formation, and (3) soil as an open system
capable of supporting the functions in all ecosystems. Examples are:
• Soil geology
• Soil morphology

Here are the fields related to soil science:

• Chronology is the study of rock as an indicator of geologic time.
• Mineralogy is the study of minerals.
• Petrology is the study of rocks.
• Sedimentology is the study of sediments.

Soil Physics
It is the study of soil’s physical properties and processes. Here are the
related fields of soil physics:
• Soil architecture
• Soil mechanics is the study of the response of soils to loads.
• Soil hydrology is the study of the flow of water in the soil.
• Soil thermodynamics

Soil Chemistry
Soil chemistry is the study of the natural chemical composition of a
given soil. Here are the related fields of soil chemistry:
• Soil mineralogy deals with the structural chemistry of the solid
components of soil.

Soil Biology
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity in the soil. Here
are the related fields of soil biology:
• Soil biochemistry is concerned with biomolecules and the biological
process of soil organic matter.
• Soil microbiology is the study of microorganisms in the soil and
their functions. It also deals with the biochemical reaction carried out
primarily by microorganisms.
• Soil ecology is the study of how soil organisms interact with other
organisms and their environment
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Soil Fertility
Soil fertility is the management of nutrients to improve crop
production. It also deals with the quality of soil to provide the optimum level
of nutrients for plant growth. Here are the related fields of soil fertility:
• Soil mineral nutrition is concerned with the native nutrients of the
soil parent material.

Soil Conservation and Management

Soil conservation is the application of operations, practices, and
treatments to protect soil and enhance its performance. It also deals with the
protection of soil against physical loss by erosion or chemical deterioration;
the totality of all tillage operations, cropping practices, fertilization, liming,
etc. conducted on soil for crop production. Here are the related fields of soil
conservation:
• Land management deals with managing the use and development of
land.
• Soil restoration deals with the naturalization or rewilding of
problematic soils.

Soil Survey
A soil survey is the inventory of the soil resource describing the
characteristics of the soils in a given area. It also deals with the allocation of
lands for general or broad purposes such as agriculture, forestry, settlement,
and military reservations. Here are the related fields of soil survey:
• Land use is concerned with the description of human use of the land.
• Soil taxonomy is the classification and naming of soil.
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Lesson 7:

Historical Background
Unlike other fields of science, soil science is considered young, the
reason being, that it was not recognized as a discipline until the nineteenth
century. Early agrarian civilizations slowly started the study of soil however
it didn't become the focus.

In this lesson, we’ll dive into the history and development of soil
science.

Prehistory
The cultivation of plants for food allowed humans to convert from
nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyles to more settled ones.

Ancient History
According to the 2500 B.C writings of Mesopotamia (now Iraq), the
land between Tigris and Euphrates shows evidence of early civilization;
fertility of the land was mentioned. Fertility was due to annual flooding of
the land and a system of canals was built for irrigation of the crops. Before,
there was what we call shifting agriculture in the uplands or also known as
the slash and burn in which large-scale deforestation was being practiced for
agricultural use. After using the land for agriculture, people tend to abandon
the land and look for another place to perform slash and burn for agricultural
purposes.

The earliest documented attempt at a formal classification of soils

seems to have occurred in China about 40 centuries ago. The Chinese system
included nine classes based on productivity. Yellow, soft soils (soils derived
from loess) were considered the best, followed by rich, red soils. Evidence
suggests that the Chinese soil classification system was used to levy taxes
based on soil productivity.

Classical History
Some of the important Greek historical writings related to soil fertility
are discussed below:
• During the Golden Age of Greeks (800-200 B.C), the following was
discovered:
o Manure increased productivity ad prolonged land use
- the green manure crops (i.e., legumes) enriched the
soil,
o Liming increased productivity, o Wood ashes and
saltpeter (KNO3) are beneficial, and o Saline soils can
be detected by taste.
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• Xenophon (430-350 B.C.E.) was a Greek historian who first recorded

the merits of green manure crops. He wrote “But then whatever weeds
are upon the ground, being turned into the earth, enrich the soil as
much as dung “meaning incorporating weeds into soils is as good as
applying dung.
• Theophrastus (371 - 287 BC) gave the soil the name “edaphos” and
described soil properties that affect growth.
• In Rome, Cato (234–149 years B.C.E.) developed a classification
system of arable soils, and the fundamental book “De agricultura”
described several soil types: white clay, red clay, mottled earth, and
friable dark earth. He also emphasized the suitability of soils for
farming

Middle Ages
• Pietro de Crescenzi (1233-1320), a Roman, published a book on
agricultural practices (horticulture and agronomy).

Early Modern Period

• In 1634, Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580-1644) performed the
Willow Tree Experiment and was arrested by agents of the Spanish
Inquisition for the crime of studying plants and other phenomena.
While under house arrest, he started to consider how plants grew. He
concluded that the Willow tree grew and water was the sole nutrient of
plants.
• Jethro Tull (1674-1741) thought soil small particles were ingested by
plants. He concluded that cultivating the soil made it easier for plants
to take up soil particles. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1700
that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows and later developed a
horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many landowners
and helped to provide the basis for modern agriculture.
• James E. Oglethorpe (1696-1785) established the experimental
garden of bluffs of the Savannah River in Georgia to produce exotic
food crops in 1733.
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) demonstrated the value of gypsum
which improves soil's physical and chemical properties.
• Mikail Lomonosov (1711–1765) wrote and taught about soil as an
evolutionary (changing) rather than a static body.
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• Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was an agronomist who wrote quotes

related to agriculture. One of the known quotes he wrote is that
“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute
most to real wealth, good morals and happiness.”

Late Modern Period

• Friedrich Albert Fallou (1794-1877) - in his book “Pedology or
General and Special Soil Science” (1862), argued for the recognition of
Soil Science as an independent natural science. He is also considered
the Founder of Soil Science.
• Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865) is the Father of Soil Chemistry in the
US. He was the one who first used lime in humid regions and was the
one who showed how to restore fertility to depleted Southeast
plantations.
• Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839) developed the hardness scale in
minerals (Moh’s scale of mineral hardness).
• Justus Von Liebig (1803-1873) is the father of the modern fertilizer
industry. He stressed the value of mineral elements from the soil. He
found that C in plants comes from CO2 of the atmosphere and not from
humus, H and O come from water, Alkaline metals (Ca, Mg and K) were
needed to neutralize acids formed by plants, and phosphates are
necessary for seed formation. He manufactured fertilizer but made the
mistake of fusing P and K with lime, making P and K unavailable to
plants) and authored Liebig's Law of Minimum which states “If one of
the essential nutrients is deficient, growth will be poor even if all other
elements are abundant”.
• Henri Darcy (1803-1858) developed the key law in Soil Physics
(Darcy’s Law) that describes water flow in soils.
• Joseph Henry Gilbert (1817-1901) established the first systematic
long-term field fertilizer experiment in the world-famous.
• Vasily Vasil'evich Dokuchaev (1846-1903) published a report of a
field study of Chernozem soils present under grasslands, where he
applied the principles of morphology to soils, described major soil
groups and their genesis, produced the first scientific classification of
soils, developed methods of mapping soils, and laid the foundation for
soil genesis. He is also considered the Father of Modern Soil Science.
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• Eugene W. Hilgard (1833-1916) wrote a masterful treatise on the

five factors governing the development of soils and is considered the
“Father of American Soil Science”.
• It is 1913 when Albert H. Munsell (1858-1918), an American art
instructor, introduced his system with the publication of the Atlas of
the Munsell Color System, which featured 15 color charts consisting of
several hundred color chips arranged according to the three
characteristics of hue, value, and chroma. After he died in 1918, the
Munsell Color Company, Inc., carried on his work, publishing a new
edition of the Atlas under the title Munsell Book of Color (1929). A
three-dimensional representation of the Munsell system, sometimes
called the Munsell color tree, is shown in the figure.

Contemporary History
Starting in the 19th century, Soil Science was already considered a
natural science that deals with a natural body – the soil. Major applications
were initially toward addressing agricultural concerns and have greatly
contributed to the increased food production worldwide. Worsening
environmental problems and the increased realization that the soil can treat
contaminants has dramatically changed the focus of soil science.

One of the most prominent scientists during this time is Hans Jenny
(1904-1972) who worked as a geologist and soil scientist and wrote about the
relationships between soils and climate. He also published the “Factors of
Soil Formation” s = f (cl, o, r, p, t, ...).