1. Introduction to Soils and Soil
Resources 2001
Lecture 4
Legal Land Location, Soil Inventory,
Module 1 review

2. Tonight
Assignment 2 and Catena due
Lab manual hand out
Lab groups for Feb 10
Legal Land Survey
Soil Survey
Review

3. Morning Lab Section
Quentin Bochar
Fred Bowker
Brenda
Clements
Matt Corrigan
Lois Dvorsky
Shannon Hall
Junko Ishida
Ivan Mazur
Rory Ryder
David Sidlick
Warren Taylor
Graham Wilson

4. Afternoon Lab Section
Carlos Arregoces
Barry Eastwood
Jana Erickson
Joyce Gould
Sarah Laurence
Mylo Mantai
DonnaRae
Paquette
Howard Preston
Barry Robinson
Anne Sagert
David Slade
Dan Sliwkanich
Janet Stahl
Jay Wiseman

5. Reading
Chapter 12 of text book
Lab manual
For review read chapters 1 - 5 of text
book

6. Legal Land Survey
Land in the Prairie Provinces is divided
into parcels using a regular grid pattern.
The legal location of a particular parcel of
land is designated by its location within
the grid.

7. Fig. 12.2. Legal land survey in Alberta
Credit: Pedosphere.com

8. Legal Land Survey
49th parallel on the south
110o
W longitude - fourth meridian
(Alberta Saskatchewan border)

9. Legal Land Survey
A township is that tract of land bounded
on the east and west sides by range lines
and on the north and south sides by
township lines.
It is a square with sides of approximately
6 miles.

10. Lines
Base lines
Range lines
Township lines
Correction lines

11. Base lines
Start at 49th parallel
Second baseline is 24 miles north of this
Base lines every 24 miles north
Drawn horizontally from East to West
Divide the grid into strips

12. Range lines
Start at 4th Meridian
Numbered to the West of this
Six miles apart from each other
Projected 12 miles North
Divide the grid North to South
Converge to the North

13. Correction lines
Due to curve of the Earth
Range lines converge
Correction lines used to offset the
range lines

14. Ranges
30 ranges at 49th parallel
26 ranges at the latitude of
Edmonton

15. Legal Land Survey
Townships are divided into 36 sections.
Each is approximately 1.6 km (1 mile)
square and contains about 260 hectares
or 640 acres.

16. Legal Land Survey
Each section is divided into quarter
sections designated as NE, NW, SE, and
SW.
The legal description or location of a
quarter section includes in order from left
to right the quarter designation, the
section, township, and range numbers
and the nearest meridian to the east.

17. 31 32 33 34 35 36
30 29 28 27 26 25
19 20 21 22 23 24
18 17 16 15 14 13
7 8 9 10 11 12
6 5 4 3 2 1
Numbering convention for sections in a township

18. Legal location
Quarter: SW
Section: 19
Township: 9
Range: 7
Meridian: W4
Example: SW-19-9-7-W4

19. Soil Survey Maps
Hand drawn
Paper reproductions
Digital

20. Soil maps in Alberta
Soil survey began in 1920
Intensified in 1950
Digitized 1992
Agricultural zone of Alberta now
available as AGRASID CD-ROM

21. Relationships
Distribution of soils linked to:
climate
vegetation
parent material

22. Soils of Alberta
South East to North West Trend
dry to wetter climate
short grass to forest vegetation
moraine to colluvial parent material

23. Soils of Alberta
Brown Chernozemic in SE
Dark Brown Chernozemic
Black Chernozemic
Dark Gray Chernozemic
Gray Luvisols
Brunisols
Organic Soils

25. Soil Survey
Soil survey reports, including maps of the
area surveyed and description of the soils,
have been published for most important
agriculture, forestry, and recreational
regions of the region

26. Soil Survey (2)
Surveyors develop mental concepts or
models of how soils are distributed across
the study area.

27. Soil Survey (3)
During the mapping process, portions of
the map area are delineated such that
variability within the delineated area is
less than the variability found in the entire
area.

28. Soil Survey (4)
Suppose you encounter the following
description for a polygon:
Ar4 Fn3 On3
Letters represent map units;
Digits represent proportion of the landscape

29. Soil Survey (5)
Suppose you encounter the following
description for a polygon:
Ar4 Fn3 On3
Ar: Angus Ridge (Eluviated Black Chernozem)
Fn: Falun (Orthic Dark Gray Luvisol)
On: Onoway (Orthic Humic Gleysol)

30. Soil Survey (6)
Recent soil survey reports contain detailed
information. For example:
Map symbol: Ar
Map unit: Angus Ridge
Soil Group: Eluviat ed Black
Dominant Texture: Loam
Parent Material: Till

31. Soil Survey (7)
Drainage Class: Well drained
Topography: Undulat ing to
moderately rolling
Stoniness: Slightly stony

32. Soil Survey (8)
Map scale: 1:126,720 or
1 cm = 1.267 km or
1 inch = 2 miles

33. Exam hint
There will not be any questions on legal
land location or soil survey on the
Module 1 exam
Legal land location and soil survey will
be used in lab 2 on March 10

34. Review of Module 1
Terminology
What is soil?
Soil components
Horizons
Texture
Structure
Colour

35. Review of module 1
Soil Formation
Weathering
Soil Development
Horizon Development
Soil Classification
Chernozems, Luvisols and Solonetz

37. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Percentage
soil air/water mineral organic
Components of soil

38. Pore space
“Ideal soil”
50% pore space
Can be water or air, or both
Optimum condition is 50:50 water:air

39. Soil horizons
Mineral and organic
master horizons
suffixes to master horizons

40. Soil horizons
Master horizons
Soil profile
Horizons A and B = solum
C is parent material

41. Texture, Structure and
Colour
Texture = % sand, silt clay
Texture triangle
Particle size ranges
Affect on soil properties

42. Structure
Arrangement of primary particles into
groups
Types
Types and horizons
Importance of structure

43. Calculations
Bulk density
Particle Density
Pore space
% Pore space

44. Bulk density and porosity
As Dp increases, pore space
decreases
Typical values for soil textural classes
Importance of aggregation

45. Colour
Munsell
Distinguishes horizons
Related to amount of organic matter
Related to minerals
Related to water/air in the soil

46. Parent material
Types of rocks
Regolith
Type of parent material
Features of parent material
Glaciation

47. Weathering
Physical and Chemical
agents involved
primary minerals converted to
secondary

48. Chemical weathering
Carbonation
Hydration
Hydrolysis
Oxidation

49. Physical weathering
Disintegration
Temperature
Water, Ice and Wind
Plants and Animals

50. Soil Development
Pedosphere
Soil and Solum
Soil forming factors

51. Soil forming factors
Climate
Vegetation
Parent materials
Organisms
Relief

52. Horizon development
Additions
Removals
Mixing
Translocation
Transformations

53. Eluviation
The transportation of soil material in
suspension or in solution within the
soil by the downward or lateral
movement of WATER

54. Eluvial horizon
A soil horizon that has been formed
by the process of eluviation

55. Illuviation
The process of depositing soil
material removed from one horizon in
the soil to another, usually from an
upper to a lower in the soil profile.

56. Illuvial horizon
A soil horizon in which material
carried from an overlying layer has
been precipitated from solution or
deposited from suspension as a layer
of accumulation.

57. Translocation
The movement of soil materials in
solution or suspension from one
horizon to another.
Movement can be in any direction
within the soil profile

58. Leaching
The removal from the soil of materials
in solution.
The material has moved out of the
soil profile, usually into the ground
water.

59. Transportation
The movement of materials in the soil
from one horizon to another by any
means such as
water
animals
frost heave

60. Soil Classification
Master horizons
Suffixes
Canadian System of Soil
Classification

61. Classification
Reflects
soil moisture regimes
soil temperature classes
soil moisture sub classes
type of vegetation
parent material

62. CSSC
Orders
Great Groups
Subgroups
Family
Series

63. Amount of information
Less at Order level
increases through the levels
Most at soil series level

64. Chernozemic Soils
Develop under continental climate
typically grassland
well to imperfectly drained
OM accumulation > decomposition
Must have an Ah >10 cm

65. Great Groups of
Chernozems
There are four
Differentiated based on the colour of
the A horizon
Processes happening in a
Chernozem

66. Solonetzic Soils
Salt affected
Leached
saline C horizon
well to imperfectly drained

67. Diagnostic horizon
Bn or Bnt
What does “n” tell us?
What does “t” tell us?
Bt at least 5 cm thick
Increase in clay

68. Great Groups of Solonetz
There are four
Differentiated on basis of how much
the B horizon has broken down
Solodization breaks down the B

69. Solonetzic soils
Distinct structure of the B horizon
Hard B
Hard peds
Peds may be coated

70. Luvisol
Forests
LFH
Mild to cold climate
Eluviation and illuviation

71. Luvisol process
Movement of clay from upper horizon
to lower horizon
Increase in clay changes texture

72. Great Groups of Luvisols
There are two
Differentiated based on
type of vegetation under which they
develop
climate

73. Subgroups
Differentiated on the basis of the kind
and arrangement of horizons that
indicate conformity to the central
concept of the great group

74. Subgroups
Orthic - most like the great group, no
dominant processes other than those
used to classify the Great Group present.
Gleyed - like the great group but gleyed
Eluviated - like the great group but with
an eluviated horizon

75. Examples
Great group : Black Chernozem
Orthic Black Chernozem is not gleyed
(Gleyed) not eluviated (Eluviated), not
sitting on top of rock (Rego) or
containing calcareous material
(Calcareous)

76. Subgroups
Differentiated using conformity to great
group (e.g. Orthic)
Differentiated on basis or intergrading
towards another soil order (e.g. Gleyed)
Differentiated on special features within
the control section (e.g. Vertic)

77. Module 1 Examination
Room 2-36 Earth Sciences Building
Starts at noon
I hr exam
bring a calculator
show all working
Good luck!

78. Lab Saturday Feb 10
Group 1: 9 am to noon
Group 2: 1 pm to 4 pm
Lab held in 2-44 Earth Sciences
Building
Lab TA is Garth Wruck
Have fun!

79. Good Luck!