Field Guide to Soils and the Environment Applications of Soil Surveys PDF
Preview Field Guide to Soils and the Environment Applications of Soil Surveys
Field Guide to Soils and the Environment Environmental Resource Management Series Consulting Editor Donald R. Coates State University of New York, Binghamton In the same series: Soils and the Environment G. W. Olson Mineral Resources J. A. Wolfe Field Guide to Soils and the Environment Applications of Soil Surveys Gerald W. Olson A Dowden & Culver book Chapman and Hall New York London First published 1984 by Chapman and Hall 733 Third Avenue, New York NY 10017 Published in Great Britain by Chapman and Hall Ltd 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE © 1984 Dowden & Culver, Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 ISBN-13: 978-94-011-6945-5 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-011-6943-1 001: 10.1007/978-94-011-6943-1 This title is available in both hardbound and paperback editions. The paperback edition is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Olson, Gerald W. Field guide to soils and the environment. "A Dowden and Culver book." Bibliography: p. I ncludes index. 1. Soil surveys. 2. Soil science. I. Title. 5592.14.036 1984 631.4 84-5050 ISBN-13: 978-94-011-6945-5 This book is dedicated to my wife, Mary, who helped me to understand the humanistic aspects of soil survey interpretations and land uses. As an Ordained United Methodist Minister, she sometimes asks me to give sermons in her churches on such occasions as World Food Day and Freedom from Hunger campaigns. Her countless hours spent in distribution of food to the poor have accentuated to me the importance of reordering priorities for resource use and improving planning and management schemes for soils and land uses in the future. Foreword The success of the book Soils and the Environment imagination in the applications of soil surveys, illustrates the need for further, more detailed toward the end of improving productivity and information about soil survey interpretations (uses efficiency in the use of soils and the environment. of soil surveys), especially for laypersons, teachers, Although laypersons, teachers, and students are the and students. Much information about soils and primary groups addressed by this Field Guide, the environment is secluded in offices of various other people involved with using soil surveys are agencies and institutions and thus is not readily (or will be) agriculturalists, agronomists, assessors, available to the people who need it. Techniques for botanists, conservationists, contractors, ecologists, finding and using the information are also not well economists, engineers, extension workers, fores known, so there is great need for this Field Guide ters, geologists, groundwater experts, planners, to Soils and the Environment to provide teachers politicians, public health officials, range managers, and learners with exercises that will give them recreationists, soil scientists, wildlife specialists, practice leading to confidence in the manipulation and many others. This Field Guide complements and utilization of soil survey data. In a sense, all and enhances the book Soils and the Environment of us are (or should be) learners and teachers in the published in 1981. use of soil survey information. This Field Guide therefore emphasizes the use of initiative and DONALD R. COATES vii Preface Exercises in this Field Guide to Soils and the by different yields and other production and Environment are segregated into three parts: performance functions. The exercise of land uses Part I. Language of Soil Surveys and Criteria for and soils makes correlations that enable under Soi IRati ngs standing of effects of specific soil characteristics. Part II. Applications of Soil Surveys in Systems Exercises of the tragedy of the commons, strategic of Wide Usage implications, and military campaigns emphasize Part III. Principles Governing the Applications of that soils are resources of extreme value, and that Soil Survey Interpretations in the Future their uses and abuses help to determine the fate of Part I deals first with the basic data of the soil nations-ultimately even in warfare. Short sections survey: namely, the soil profile descriptions, soil on research and predictions open avenues for maps, and laboratory analyses. The process of future work-to challenge laypersons, teachers, and classification is addressed through exercises on Soil students. Soils tours and slide sets are emphasized Taxonomy and computerized groupings of soils. as effective teaching devices. Formats for a final Practical work on projects is introduced early in exam and an evaluation of the teaching are pro the Field Guide (as in sequence in course teaching), vided. so that students can have the maximum amount of This Field Guide is intended to accompany the time to work on topics of individual interest textbook Soils and the Environment* for use in as the course progresses. Photographs are empha teaching and learning about the applications of soil sized as one of the best tools to describe and teach surveys. The Field Guide exercises give a series of about soils and land uses. The first exam provides a "hands-on" experiences to students that will take "learning experience" for students to evaluate the them out into the field, into the laboratory, into basic data, arrange soils into useful categorical cartographic manipulations, and into contact with groups, and make astute judgments and predictions the people making and using soil surveys. The about soil behavior. perspective of all the exercises is that of soil survey Part II provides information and experience in interpretations (uses of soil surveys). The format is applications of soil surveys in systems of wide flexible so that all or part of the exercises can be usage. Initial emphasis on engineering applications used in a full course or short courses in formal or and waste disposal illustrate how societal (and informal settings. individual) problems can be solved by using soil surveys. Rural programs are described and experi ences provided in agricultural land classification, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS erosion control, yield correlations, and farm plan ning. An exercise on community planning shows This Field Guide is a culmination of ideas and con how the total environment should be considered cepts accumulated over more than 25 years. The for most efficient and effective uses of resources in author is particularly grateful to A. Milo Dowden, urban as well as rural areas. Publisher, for suggesting the initial idea for a Part III covers the principles governing the appli Field Guide to Soils and the Environment, and to cations of soil survey interpretations in the future. Barbara Zeiders for editing the manuscript. Don The exercise on soil potentials provides experience Coates of the State University of New York has in evaluating inputs necessary to achieve maximum been especially supportive in the application of soil returns from each specific soil. Soil variability surveys and geomorphology information to en- evaluations help students to appreciate and de *Olson, G. W. 1981. Soils and the environment: A guide to scribe the "range in characteristics" of soil map soil surveys and their applications. A Dowden and Culver units, and express the variability in meaningful Book. Chapman and Hall, New York, London. 178 pages. terms. Sequential testing offers a tool by which Available from Methuen, Inc., 733 Third Avenue, New sequences of soils in landscapes can be evaluated York, NY 10017. $29.50 hardcover. $16.95 paperback. ix vironmental matters. Many materials in the Field as President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Guide have come from the author's colleagues, Empire State Chapter of the Soil Conservation especially the National Soils Handbook and pub Society of America through the years has provided lications of the Soil Conservation Service of the working relationships with most of the "soils U.S. Department of Agriculture. Particularly fruit people" in New York State. Fred Gilbert, Will ful were discussions during sabbatical work with Hanna, John Warner, and Dick Babcock have been the Soil Conservation Service in Washington, D.C., particularly helpful. Many extension workers in with Gerald Darby, Donald McCormack, and Keith New York State have provided "real-world" Young. Students at Cornell University in Agrono problems and solutions relating to soils and the my 566, "Use of Soil Information and Maps as environment appearing in this Field Guide. Resource Inventories," and other courses the Colleagues at Cornell University and in other places author has taught have provided inspiration and have also contributed greatly to this work. Sandra guidance to the exercises presented in this Field Seymour typed the manuscript, and Eileen Guide. The author's work in extension and service Callinan drafted the illustrations. x / Preface To the lay learner This Field Guide is designed primarily for the lay tive Soil Survey. Soil Surveyors are a solitary lot, person who does not have formal training in soils. spending a great deal of time by themselves doing It is intended to provide additional details and soil survey, and most are delighted to receive learning exercises to supplement the textbook inquiries about soil surveys and their uses. Most Soils and the Environment. Each person or class colleges, universities, high schools, and elementary can select the parts of the subject matter and the schools teach courses or parts of courses on soils exercises that are relevant to appropriate aspects of and earth sciences, and this Field Guide and text soil survey interpretations-to help solve soils book information will be increasingly taught in problems and to obtain training in the application the schools. The goal of the Field Guide and text of soil survey information. Everyone interested book is to provide basic information and details, in soils can use the textbook and Field Guide as and to inspire initiative and imagination in the lay information sources to the uses of soil surveys. learner and others about uses of soil surveys. Soils Locally, one can also seek help from Conservation are basic resources to be used for the benefit of all ists of the Soil Conservation Service, Cooperative of us, and we should all know more about our soils Extension Agents, and others to get in touch with in order to improve their uses and enhance our Soil Surveyors and Soil Scientists of the Coopera- stewardship of them. xi
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