- Branche: Earth science
- Number of terms: 26251
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
An international scientific society that fosters the transfer of knowledge and practices to sustain global soils. Based in Madison, WI, and founded in 1936, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ members dedicated to advancing the field of soil science. It provides information about soils in ...
(i) The total mass of living organisms in a given volume or mass of soil. (ii) The total weight of all organisms in a particular environment.
Industry:Earth science
A great soil group of the intrazonal order and halomorphic suborder, consisting of soils with gray, thin, salty crust on the surface, and with fine granular mulch immediately below being underlain with grayish, friable, salty soil; formed under subhumid to arid, hot or cool climate, under conditions of poor drainage, and under a sparse growth of halophytic grasses, shrubs, and some trees.
Industry:Earth science
A soil that formed on a landscape in the past with distinctive morphological features resulting from a soil-forming environment that no longer exists at the site. The former pedogenic process was either altered because of external environmental change or interrupted by burial. A paleosol (or component horizon) may be classed as relict if it has persisted in a land-surface position without major alteration of morphology by processes of the prevailing pedogenic environment. An exhumed paleosol is one that formerly was buried and has been re-exposed by erosion of the covering mantle.
Industry:Earth science
A graph showing the retaining capacity of a soil as a function of depth. The retaining capacity may be for water, for water at any given tension, for cations, or for any other substances held by soils.
Industry:Earth science
A mostly reducing soil moisture regime nearly free of dissolved oxygen due to saturation by groundwater or its capillary fringe and occurring at periods when the soil temperature at 50 cm below the surface is >5°C.
Industry:Earth science
A soil condition resulting from prolonged soil saturation, which is manifested by the presence of bluish or greenish colors through the soil mass or in mottles (spots or streaks) among the colors. Gleying occurs under reducing conditions, by which iron is reduced predominantly to the ferrous state.
Industry:Earth science
A soil drainage class characterized by the lack of any evidence of seasonal high water tables in the top 36 inches of the soil profile.
Industry:Earth science
A mycorrhizal association in which the fungal mycelia extend inward, between root cortical cells, to form a network ("Hartig net") and outward into the surrounding soil. Usually the fungal hyphae also form a mantle on the surface of the roots.
Industry:Earth science
A general term for any ground surface exhibiting a discernibly ordered, more-or-less symmetrical, morphological pattern of ground and, where present, vegetation. Patterned ground is characteristic of, but not confined to, permafrost regions or areas subjected to intense frost action; it also occurs in tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas. Patterned ground is classified by type of pattern and presence or absence of sorting and includes nonsorted and sorted circles, net, polygons, steps and stripes, garlands, and solifluction features. In permafrost regions, the most common macroform is the ice-wedge polygon and a common microform is the nonsorted circle.
Industry:Earth science
The weight percentage of water held by, or remaining in, the soil (i) after the soil has been air-dried, or (ii) after the soil has reached equilibrium with an unspecified environment of high relative humidity, usually near saturation, or with a specified relative humidity at a specified temperature.
Industry:Earth science
