Soil properties indicative for quality

✍ Scribed by R. Brouwer

• Book ID: 104755464
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 219 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6369
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00396222

✦ Synopsis

1. Soil Types and Properties

Even within the small territory of The Netherlands, soil properties show a considerable diversity. A number of soil types, such as clay soil, peat soil, and sandy soil can be distinguished with several transitions and mixtures in between. All these soil types can be charactqrized by their physical and chemical properties. As such features as structure, particle size, pore volume, organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, pH and mineral content are used. Most of these features within each soil type may change with soil water table and land use.

With very few exceptions all our soils are man-made or at least highly influenced by human activities. This holds not only for the area in use in agriculture but also for the grounds around agricultural settlements and the more or less natural reserves. Yet we may enjoy what we have since the great variation in character of the soil is coupled with the same variation in vegetation and landscape.