Lecture 3b

Writing Soil Profile Descriptions and Forest Soils

Writing Soil Profile Descriptions

 First step- prepare

suitable pedon for
describing
 Stand back and view
the horizons from a
distance
 Determine
approximately how
many distinct horizons
are present.
 Collecting the data to write the soil morphology
description
Soil location – Pipestone County, SW Mn.
 This soil has 4
horizons
 Determine the colors,
structure, texture,
add HCl, look for
unusual features,
Select the name of
horizon, and classify
the soil.
 1 = 10yr 2/1 gr -Loam
 2 = 10yr ¾ sbk -Loam
 3 = 2.5y 4/4 and has
CaCO3 concretions –
sbk Effervescence.
-Loam
 4 = 2.5y 5/4 massive
structure and CaCO3
concretions and
Effervsence.- Loam
Name the Horizons

 A
 Bw


Bk


Ck
Forest Soils
 Forest trees depend
directly upon the soil
for physical
support, nutrition, and
water
 The importance of soils
in the life and health of
the forest has not been
understood until recent
years.
 The need for
management of
agricultural soils has
been studied for a
hundreds years.
 German scientists were
the first to actively
established the
importance of soils and
the role they play in
forestry.
Other German scientists
recognized that forest
soils were most fertile
 where there were no
removals of forest
products,
 and poorest where
removals were intensive.
Courses in Forest Soils in the U.S.

 Forest soils courses

were at Yale, Duke ,
Cornell, and Wisconsin
prior to 1945.
 As more observations
were made of the
relationship between soil
properties and forest
growth, the case for the
study of forest soils was
made.
Forest Soil Characteristics
 O Horizons- Duff
layer
 E horizons
 Leached horizons,
More acidic
 Drip Line influence on
soil
 Drip Line –
more water
deposited
under the
tree due to
the canopy
catching
water
 Greater
influence
where trees
are in the
open – not a
thick forest
Tree fall and
root tip up

 1. Tap root (hickory,

walnut, butternut, white
oak, hornbeam)
 2. Heart root (red oak,
honey locust, basswood,
sycamore, pines)
 3. Flat root (birch, fir,
spruce, sugar maple,
cottonwood, silver maple,
hackberry)
 Forests with more #3
will have more tip ups.
 When a tree falls over and the root mass tips upward, the soil will remain
in place for a few years. Gradually the soil is eroded around the decaying
root mass.
 Over time the area of root tip is left higher than the area from which it
came. The forest gradually becomes a series of micro hills and swales.
http://www.hubbardbrook.org/yale/watersheds/w6/west-of-6-stop/soil.htm
 DYAD

 Describe where
you have
obtained an
experience in a
forest.
 What do you
remember most
about this
experience?
US Forest Service Research is
centered on two areas of work:
 First is work on
 nutrient cycling,
 plant nutrition,
 soil moisture,
 plant growth relationships,
 soil microbiological functions
 soil quality.
 Second = general area of
pollution involving:
 Sedimentation from soil,
 chemical deposition and
water flow through
ecosystems.
 Main research objective :
enhance soil and
ecosystem sustainability.
This joint National Forest
System and Forest Service
Research and Development
project was initially
established to evaluate
timber management impacts
on long term soil productivity
To increase the accuracy of the study, monitoring
efforts want to:

1) Calibrate changes in soil

properties against:
1. stand productivity
(trees only)
2. total productivity (all
forest vegetation)
2) Evaluate and improve field
monitoring methods.
3) Find ways to extend
results to other sites.
Objectives:
1. Quantify the effects of
soil disturbance on soil
productivity,
2. Validate standards and
methods for soil quality
monitoring, and
3. Understand the
relationships between soil
properties and forest
management practices.
Findings from this
research will show how
changes in site
organic matter and
soil porosity affect
forest health,
productivity, and
sustainability.
LTSP research focuses on the role of soil porosity and organic
matter and their effect on the site processes that control
productivity.

 Long Term Soil Productivity

(LTSP) system =
experimental sites studied
with universities, on the
National Forests
 The experiments are
designed to create varying
degrees of stress and to
provide measures of
biological response and soil
recovery.
 Sites are on soil types
across the nation and are
dedicated to long-term
research.
 Brian Palik and Randy  Principal Investigators for
Kolka Silviculture and (LTSP) research in aspen
Forest Soils Research forests of the Lake States
Objectives :
 USDA Forest Service -
 (1) determine how changes in
soil porosity and organic
Grand ,Rapids, MN 55744- matter content affect the
stationed at Marcel, MN fundamental processes
controlling forest
productivity and
sustainability;
 (2) compare responses among
major forest types and soil
groups in North America
 The experimental design is with three levels each of organic
matter removal and soil compaction.

 Levels of organic matter

removal are: (1) bole only
harvest (10 cm top diameter);
(2) total tree harvest (all
aboveground biomass); and (3)
total tree harvest plus forest
floor removal.
 Levels of soil compaction were
designed to increase bulk
density of the surface 30 cm
of soil by 0%, 15%, and 30%.
 Studies are in progress on the
Marcell Experimental Forest
(1991) and on the Ottawa
(1992), Chippewa (1993), and
Huron Manistee (1994)
National Forests.
Similar Study on Commercially Logged Sites

 Purpose: To establish
linkages between
experimental results and
actual field conditions on
commercially logged sites
 Note: the study of
forests soils is similar to
the study of agricultural
soils – determine the
management needed for
sustained yield and still
protect the environment.