Exam 15: The Geography of Soils

Which of the following sets of descriptors is correctly matched with the soil moisture condition indicated?

Since 1950, as much as 38 percent of the world's farmable land has been lost to soil erosion.

What material in the soil serves a similar role to that of clay because of its ion exchange capacity, ability to store water, and ability to bind particles together?

If humus were lost from the soil due to excessive farming or soil erosion, which of the following could occur?

Andisols are ________ soils that are ________ in CEC.

In a transect across the 98th meridian, from west to east, which of the following gives the correct sequence of soil orders?

Histosols develop in cold, arid climates.

Weathered bedrock or weathered parent material (regolith), excluding the unweathered bedrock itself, is designated the ________ horizon.

Plowing the land could alter the structure of a soil, but not the texture.

Which of the following is false regarding soils?

A cation has a ________ charge, and an anion has a ________ charge.

Which subsurface diagnostic horizon is used as brick because it is so hard?

Which of the following lists of soil categories gives the proper hierarchy for the Soil Taxonomy system-from the largest grouping to the smallest unit (i.e., from least to most in terms of the number of soils included)?

A pedon is imagined as

Ultisols experience ________ leaching and therefore have relatively ________ levels of cations.

Which of the following soil layers would usually contain the greatest amount of clay in a well-developed soil?

Which soil order would tend to occur in the southeastern U.S., with its high temperatures and humid environment?

The principal natural soil-forming factors

Broadleaf trees tend to make the soil more ________, whereas conifers tend to make it more ________.

Rounded peds have ________ space between them than other peds, and are therefore ________.