Resources

General Soil Resources:

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is a federal agency that is tasked with providing assistance to farmers and ranchers to improve, protect, and conserve natural resources while also boosting agricultural productivity. Initially conceived as the Soil Conservation Service in the wake of the Dust Bowl, the NRCS has been at the forefront of catalogging soils in the USA and disseminated science-based soils information to the public.  In addition to soil resources, their efforts address watersheds, wetlands, water quality, air quality, plants, and animals. 

Their website will connect you to general and technical references about soil surveys, soil health, soil biology, and soil use. 

  • Official Soil Series Descriptions

Detailed descriptions of all the soil series presented in the Soil Monolith Collection can be found here. Click on "View OSD by series name" and enter the soil series name.  In the descriptions, you will find detailed soil horizon specifications for a typical pedon, location information, common uses, related soil series and historical notes from earlier soil surveys and classification attempts. 

This UC Davis lab has created an interactive, online soil survey tool SoilWeb that can be used with Google, Google Earth, and as an iPhone app.

  • Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

Their website contains many resources for educators and news on soils and science policy.

The website that accompanies the exhibit with the Smithsonia's National Museum of Natural History contains many interactives and videos.

Soil Taxonomy and Classification Resources:

Learning how to classify soils can be a daunting task.  In order to describe the diversity of soils and improve communication about soils, soil scientists have developed a technical language and hierarchical system for grouping and describing soils.  In addition to introductory soil science textbooks, two NRCS resources are particularly useful for learning and navigating the soil classification system.

  • Keys to Soil Taxonomy: A detailed handbook that is used by scientists to classify soils.  It presents a systematic approach to classifying soils by starting with Soil Orders, then Suborders, and finally Great Groups.
     
  • Illustrated Guide to Soil Taxonomy:  This Guide is based on the Keys to Soil Taxonomy, but is intended to be a more user-friendly handbook for classifying soils.  It is geared towards college students who are learning how to classify soils.  It contains numerous photographs and flow charts along with an easy to follow narrative structure.

    PDF versions of both documents can be found on the NRCS website here.

How to make soil monoliths:

Many approaches can be used to make soil monoliths.  Here are a few websites and published articles that describe the process.

Websites:

Published articles:

  • Hirmas, D.R., 2013. A Simple Method for Removing Artifacts from Moist Fine-Textured Soil Faces. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 77, 591-593.
  • Haddad, N.I., Lawrie, R.A., Eldridge, S.M., 2009. Improved method of making soil monoliths using an acrylic bonding agent and proline auger. Geoderma, 151, 395-400.
  • Barahona, E., Iriarte, A., 1999. A method for the collection of soil monoliths from stony and gravelly soils. Geoderma, 87, 305-310.
  • Wright, M.J., 1971. The preparation of soil monoliths for the ninth international congress of soil science, Adelaide, 1968. Geoderma, 5, 151-159.
  • Hammond, R.F., 1974. Preservation of peat monoliths for permanent display. Journal of Soil Science, 25, 63-66.
  • Ottersberg, R.J., Byron, T.M., 1987. An improved procedure for collection and preservation of soil profiles. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 51, 1388-1390.

Other soil monolith collections:

 

Other UC Davis Resources: