SMC Geography Soil Taxonomy and Soil Suitability Ratings Discussion – Description
Explore the soils at one of your favorite locations (or simply just a location that interests you) in the U.S. This location can be in any U.S. state, Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. First, go to the UC Davis California Soil Resource Lab SoilWeb (https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/)Links to an external site., click on the Menu in the top-left corner, and then Zoom to Location. Do a search for the location you want to study, and once the map has zoomed into your area, choose a specific place and click on it.
Once you click on a place on the map, that will bring up the Map Unit Composition window. This tells you the percentages of different soils found at that location. Click on the soil type that makes up the highest percentage of the location you selected. In the example below, I picked the location of my office at Santa Monica College (Drescher Hall). Since it is mostly urban land (70%), I would need to choose the second-most common soil type to explore for this assignment, the Marina soil, which comprises 15% of the soil here.
Once you select the most abundant soil, a window will appear with several dropdown arrows (see example above). Open the dropdown information for Soil Taxonomy and Soil Suitability Ratings. Take note of the soil order under the Soil Taxonomy subheading and the examine the information provided with the different boxes under the Soil Suitability Ratings (clicking on a box will bring up the information for that subcategory, e.g., Agriculture, Forestry, etc.).
Take a screenshot that shows the location you’re studying and the information for the soil type you selected (similar to the screenshot above).
There is a lot of information here, most of which we haven’t discussed in class. Don’t worry if you only understand a little bit of what you read about your soil. Just take notes on the things that make sense. For example, in the window above, I can see that the Marina soil type is found in the order Entisols, it is rated excellent for agriculture although there are severe concerns with avocado root rot. By exploring the other suitability boxes, I can find out the potential fire damage and drought vulnerability, how well suited it is for different urban and recreational uses, and how well suited it might be for certain wildlife species.
Next, click on Description link at the top right of the informational window to pull up more information about the soil type. Again, you will not understand all the terminology, so stick with just taking notes on the info you do understand (i.e., the first sentence will tell you about the overall soil color, acidity, and texture – no need to discuss anything about the horizons for this assignment).
Lastly, click on the Series Extent Explorer link at the top middle of the informational window, which will open a map like the one below. This shows you other nearby locations in which this soil type is found. Take a screenshot of this map similar to the one below.
Now that you have studied your soil, your job is to explain it to us in a way that is clear and relatively easy for anyone to understand (pretend you are explaining it to someone not in our class). Do not copy and paste text from the website. Answer the following questions for your primary post:
Tell us about the location you picked and the soil type that is most abundant at this location. Insert your first screenshot, which shows the name of the soil type and the opened dropdown menus for Soil Taxonomy and Soil Suitability Ratings.
Keeping your explanation simple (an important skill in science!), describe what you found out about this soil. What soil order does it belong to and what are the general characteristics of this soil order? (Refer to the lecture and assigned reading for general info about each soil order.) What is this soil well-suited for and what is this soil not well-suited for? Describe its overall character (e.g., color and texture).
Describe where this soil type is found and insert your second screenshot of the Series Extent Explorer.
Lastly, reflect on how the information you learned about the soil at the location you studied might be used. Who would want to know this information? For what kinds of situations/projects might this information be helpful?
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