SOIL : Types of Soil, Classification of Soil, Soil Biota and Fertility

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Types Of Soils

The soil have been dif­fer­en­ti­ate it into dif­fer­ent types depend­ing on the basis of pay ver­i­zon and rela­tion­ship with the par­ent rock.

Residual soils :-

The soils are formed at the same side where the weath­er­ing of the par­ent mate­r­i­al takes Place That is formed under in-situ con­di­tion from under­line rocks.In India the soils are of two types Red­dish soils which are poor in cal­ci­um, mag­ne­sium Phos­pho­rus and Nitro­gen But rich in iron oxides and black soil which is rich in clay and process high quan­ti­ties of potash , cal­ci­um, mag­ne­sium and iron.

Transported soil :-

The soils are formed from weathered material which is transported and deposit away from the site of origin.The soils are of different types depending upon the type of agent is involved in its transport.

1. Col­lu­vial — These Soils are formed from mate­r­i­al trans­port­ed by pull of grav­i­ty or under under con­di­tions of land­slide. It is very coarse and con­sist of large frag­ments of rocks.
2. Allu­vial — The soil is formed under con­di­tion of run­ning water such as flood, Plains riv­er ter­races and delta.The soil par­ti­cles are round­ed and smooth.The par­ti­cle size varies depend­ing upon the speed of trans­port­ing water.
3. Glacial — The soils are formed by the grind­ing action of Ice and Snow. heavy snow mass­es and Glac­i­er push the sur­face material.Sharp edged rock get ground­ed into smooth par­ti­cles by abra­sive action.
4. Aeo­lian — The soil formed by trans­porta­tion through wind. These include dunes and loess.they occur along the side of water bodies.The water cur­rent Erode the land and lead to depo­si­tion of soil particle.

Classifications of Soils

Soil scientist have come up with the system for classified soil. Soil taxonomy on taxonomy export from Russia ‚F A O and Canada have classify the soils on the basis of genesis I.e. Development Soil have been classified into 12 categories or orders

• Allu­vial Soil — Soil which is deposit near rivers fees and Glac­i­er is called as Allu­vial soil. It is found in Indo Gan­ga Brahma­pu­tra Plains ‚coastal plains and the bor­der riv­er val­ley of South India.
• Red Soil — Soil that devel­ops under very low rain­fall con­di­tion or gran­ite and rocks is referred as red soil. the pres­ence of oxide of iron give them red colour. found main­ly in almost y whole of Tamil nadu,South East­ern Kar­nata­ka ‚North East­ern and South­east­ern Mad­hya Pradesh, Jhark­hand the major part of Oris­sa, and the hills of plateaus of North­east India.
• Black Soil — It is very clayey thick in tex­ture. it pos­sess­es high water hold­ing capac­i­ty and is very fertile.This type of soil is best for cul­ti­va­tion of cot­ton. found in plateaus of Maha­rash­tra ‚Gujarat , Mad­hya Pradesh Main­ly Malwa.
• Moun­tain soil — It is formed by depo­si­tion of organ­ic mat­ter pro­vid­ed by for­est. it is rich in humus and het­ero­ge­neous in nature. It is se Sandy and Porus. found on the hill slopes cov­ered with for­est par­tic­u­lar­ly the Himalayan region.
• Lat­erite soil- It is kind of clay soil formed under high tem­per­a­ture and high rainfall.Found main­ly in South Maha­rash­tra, the west­ern ghats in Ker­ala And Kar­nata­ka at places on the east­ern Ghat in some parts of Assam, Tamil Nadu ‚Kar­nata­ka
• Desert soil- The soil has sand( 90 to 95 %) and clay (5 to 10%.). In some region the soil has the high per­cent­age of sol­u­ble salt but lacks in organ­ic matter.Found most­ly in the arid and semi arid region receiv­ing less than 50 cm of annu­al rainfall.

Soil Biota and Fertility

Soil biota that is living organism present in soil and important role in soil formation and development.Soil organisms alter soil physical chemical and biological properties of the soil in different ways.The biotic community is influence the spatial heterogeneity of a resources.Biological function of soil biota help in improving soil health ‚function ‚quality fertility and provide a sustainable alternative for soil for management.

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Soil for­ma­tion and improve­ment of soil struc­ture is a major func­tion per­formed by soil bio­ta. bac­te­ria present evi­dent­ly in soil secrete mucilagi­nous and organ­ic sub­stance which cov­ers cells and their colonies.The sub­stance help in cement in the soil grains to form larg­er aggregates.Fungi present in the soil also help in bind­ing the soil par­ti­cles together.

Largest soil organ­isms such as rodents ‚insect and worm help in mechan­i­cal mix­ing and weath­er­ing of soil.The roots of plant widen the fish­es in rock help­ing their break­downs to form small fine particles.Invertebrates play a role in sta­bi­liz­ing soil structure.Earthworm help in mix­ing of soil but make it more fer­tile by increas­ing vari­a­tion and Drainage.They bring down the low­est oil to the sur­face and mix soil by dig­ging burrows.burrowing activ­i­ties bring sub­soil to the sur­face. it is also helped in the cre­at­ing pas­sage for gaseous exchange i.e. dif­fu­sion of Oxy­gen and release of car­bon dioxide.

Decay and nutri­ent cycle is anoth­er major func­tion per­formed by organ­ism present in the soil.These organ­isms act as chief agent of decay in organ­ic matter.Decomposition and min­er­al­iza­tion help in the release of inor­gan­ic nutri­ents that are absorbed by the plant roots.Organisms include bac­te­ria, actin­o­mycetes and fungi.These organ­isms bring out hydrol­y­sis and oxi­da­tion of organ­ic com­pounds through var­i­ous enzy­mat­ic reac­tion. soil fau­na such as mil­li­pedes, cen­tipedes, earth­worm, mites,ants,beetles and snails con­sume plant product(litter) and leave the decom­posed Prod­uct in soil. the com­plex organ­ic com­pounds are bro­ken down into sim­pler com­pounds. exam­ple pro­teins are bro­ken down into amino acids, ammo­ni­um com­pound ‚nitrates and nitrites.Worm utilise and un decom­posed remains of plants and ani­mals as food. in the process­es con­vert it into use­ful organ­ic matter.

Nitro­gen fix­a­tion is anoth­er impor­tant func­tion per­formed by microbes present in the soil.

Microor­gan­isms such as azo­to­bac­ter, clostrid­i­um rhi­zo­bi­um help in fix­a­tion of atmos­pher­ic nitro­gen by con­vert­ing the atmos­pher­ic nitro­gen to organ­ic nitrogen.The fixed nitro­gen is utilised by oth­er organism.The amount of nitro­gen fix­a­tion has a direct effect on soil fertility.

Het­erotroph­ic soil organ­isms includ­ing bac­te­ria and fun­gi pro­duce growth-pro­mot­ing sub­stances 3 indole acetic acid.The sub­stance of the growth of plants.

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