Duration: 3 hours BPSU-Abucay Campus BSA 4 Soil Science Category

Soil Science
Sample Questions for
Board Exam
Scope:
1. Soil Fertility, Conservation
and Management
2. Soil Survey and Land
Classification
1. The biochemical oxidation of ammonium to
nitrate, predominantly by autotrophic
bacteria

a. Denitrification
b. Ammonium fixation
c. Nitrification
d. Immobilization
2. Relationship of percent base saturation and
soil pH

a. %BS increases as soil pH decreases

b. %BS decreases as soil pH decreases
c. %BS decreases as soil pH increases
d. %BS decreases does not affect soil pH
3. Which of the following process is not
mediated by soil microorganisms?

a. N mineralization
b. P immobilization
c. K leaching
d. S oxidation
e. BNF
4. What do you expect when you increase OM
of the soil

a. Decrease the amount of N to apply

b. Increase the amount of N to apply
c. Maintain the amount of N to apply
d. None of the above
5. Which of the following organic materials
will remain in the soil the longest?

a. Chicken manure
b. Corn stover
c. Rice straw
d. Wood chips
6. What soil order predominates in the
Philippines?

a. Ultisols
b. Vertisols
c. Entisols
d. Histosols
7. Which of these processes contribute to
global warming?

a. Nitrogen fixation
b. Mineralization
c. Immobilization
d. OM decomposition
e. None of these
8. Aside from neutralizing soil acidity, lime
like CaCO3 may also

a. Improve soil structure

b. Improve soil texture
c. Increase CEC
d. A and B
e. A and C
9. Soils with high buffering capacity are
generally those which

a. Sandy soil with low OM

b. Sandy with high OM
c. Clayey with low OM
d. Clayey with high OM
10. Phosphorus is less available

a. Only at low pH
b. Only at high pH
c. At very low or very high pH
d. None of the above
11. Which of the following manures contains
the highest amount of Nitrogen

a. Guano
b.Goat manure
c. Chicken manure
d.Cattle manure
12. A chemical element is considered essential
if

a. It is taken up by plants
b. It is involved in metabolic functions in the
plants
c. It makes the plant greener
d. All of the above
13. The major gaseous products of OM
decomposition under anaerobic soil conditions

a. Oxygen
b. Carbon Dioxide
c. Methane
d. Ethane
14. Type of soil structure that is less erodible
due to its high infiltration rate and strong
aggregate stability

a. Massive
b. Crumb
c. Platty
d.Loam
15. A soil that is fertile is

a. All of below
b. None of below
d. Not always productive
e. Always productive
16. The biochemical reduction of nitrate or
nitrite to gaseous nitrogen

a. Nitrification
b. Denitrification
c. Ammonification
d. Immobilization
17. Plant growth response to increasing
amounts of limiting nutrient is generally

a. None of below
b. A curvilinear function
c. A straight line function
d. A fluctuating function
18. This element(s) has a critical role in
sugarcane fertilization because of its function
in the synthesis of sugar

a. All of below
b. Nitrogen
c. Phosphorus
d. Potassium
19. Nutrient enrichment of lakes and other bodies
of water that stimulate the growth of aquatic
organism which leads to a deficiency of oxygen in
the water body.

a. Red Tide
b. Eutrophication
c. Salinization
d. Any of the above
20. Basic properties described in a soil profile

a. Texture, bulk density, consistency

b. CEC, OM ( % ) content, BS, BD
c. Color, texture, stoniness, structure
d. Plasticity, structure, consistency
21. Organic fertilizers improve

a. Soil texture
b. Soil structure
c. Both soil texture and soil structure
d.None of the above
22. This is a mechanism of nutrient movement
and uptake due to concentration gradient

a. All of below
b. Mass flow
c. Contact exchange or root interception
d. Diffusion
23. The Philippine adopts the _____Soil
Classification System

a. United States Department of Agriculture

(USDA)
b. Food and Agriculture (FAO)
c. International Soil Science Society (ISSS)
d. Soil Science Society of America(SSSA)
24. Most of the N in the soil solid fraction of
the soil is in the form of

a. Ammonium N
b. Nitrate N
c. Nitrite N
d. Organic N
25. Among the following microbial process. Which
would have the greatest contribution to global
warming?

a. SOM decomposition
b. Denitrification
c. Nitrification
d. SOM decomposition and Denitrification
e. SOM decomposition and nitrification
26. A problem soil usually found in coastal
areas
characterized by excessive amount of salts in
the soil solution.

a. acid
b. saline
c. alkaline
27. The chlorophyll molecule is composed of
four
(4) essential elements. Identify the metallic
element in the chlorophyll molecule.

a. carbon
b. hydrogen
c. magnesium
28. The minimum guarantee of a fertilizer
material in terms of percent nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium is referred as

a. fertilizer rates
b. fertilizer grade
c. fertilizer ratio
d. filler
29. If a crop residue contains 60% organic
carbon
and 5% total nitrogen, its C/N ratio is

a. 10:1
b. 12:1
c. 15:1
d. 20:1
30. When nutrients are mobile, deficiency first
shows up in

a. youngest leaves
b. oldest leaves
c. senescent leaves
d. stems
31. Blocks of soil from each horizon posted on
hard board

a. Regolith
b. Monolith
c. Soil profile
d. Pedon
32. It is the most extensively weathered of all
the
soil orders

a. Vertisols
b. Alfisols
c. Ultisols
d. Oxisols
33. Product of nitrification is

a. NO3
b. N2
c. NH4
d. N2O
34. Soil acidity is one of the most extensive soil
problems in crop production. To alleviate soil
acidity, which among these soil amendments is
applied

a. sulfur
b. lime
c. organic fertilizer
d. urea
35. Which among these processes does not
contribute to the development of soil acidity

a. leaching
b. nitrification
c. application of NH4 carrying fertilizers
+

d. volatilization
36. The H ion concentration of a soil is 1 x 10
+ -
6
M. The pH of this soil is

a. 6
b. 5
c. 7
d. 6.1
37. An organic soil is most likely having %
OM of

a. 1
b. 5
c. 25
d. 0
38. CEC is 20 m.e./100 g. If it has 8 m.e. H and
the remaining cations are bases, what is the
% BS?

a. 80
b. 40
c. 60
d. 50
39. Soil pH is one of the most important single
chemical property of the soil that indicates its
nutritional status. A soil with pH 5 has H ion
+

concentration of

a. 5 x 10 M
-5

b. 50 x 10 M-5

c. 1 x 10 M
-5

d. 10 x 10 M-5
40. Dolomite is extensively used as liming
material in acid soil grown to sugarcane.
What is the chemical formula of dolomite?

a. CaCO3
b. CaMg (CO3)2
c. CaO
d. MgCO
41. The available form of nitrogen

a. N2
b. N2O
c. NH4
d. NH3
42. The most accurate method of assessing soil
fertility

a. nutrient deficiency symptom

b. field experiment
c. plant analysis
d. soil analysis
43. One of these processes does not result in
the loss of nitrogen from the soil

a. mineralization
b. volatilization
c. denitrification
d. leaching
44. Which does not belong to the group of
words

a. guano
b. night soil
c. urea
d. chicken dung
45. Problem soil usually found in low-lying
waterlogged areas characterized by the
accumulation of organic matter is

a. Acid soil
b. Saline soil
c. Alkaline soil
d. Peat soil
46. This is not a biological process

a. volatilization
b. nitrogen fixation
c. mineralization
d. nitrification
47. Nutrient deficiency symptoms is referred as
the language of the crop. What is the term used to
describe general yellowing of leaves as a result of
deficiency of some nutrient element?

a. necrotic
b. chlorosis
c. plasmolysis
d. defective
48. Liebig’s Law of the Minimum in effect
says that plant growth and yield

a. All of below
b. None of below
c. Is limited by the absence of a nutrient
d. Is limited by excess of a particular nutrient
e. Is limited by excess of a particular nutrient
49. If a soil adsorbed and contained 30 me of
NH4 / 100 g soil and no other cations, it has a
+

CEC of _________me/ 100 g soil

a. 27
b.30
c. 45
d.64
50. Sodic soils can be chemically amended by
treatment with CaSO4.2H2O also called

a. Calcite
b.Dolomite
c. Quicklime
d.Gypsum
Board Computations:

1. Fertilizer amounts
2. Relative Neutralizing Value of lime
3. Lime requirement
4. Soil pH
5. %Base Saturation
6. %Exchangeable Sodium Percentage
THE END