BDV 3007 Soil Science

Instructor: Amirah Alias, PhD

Semester: Sem 1 2021/2022
Time: Monday 9 am
Date: 25 Oct 2021 (Week 3)
Announcements

• Mini project – update your progress by submitting the plant

picture here
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YPndlVkxndOvY_Tx
MRkSG7O6nXjrrKYfAp9Ntwtsd2k/edit?usp=sharing

• Submit your lab report 1 on 26 Dec 2021 by 5pm on e-learn

portal
• Assignment 1 due next week Thursday, 4 Nov 2021 by 5pm
Topic 3: Physical properties of soil

Learning contents
• Soil texture and soil structure
• Formation and stabilization of soil
• Tillage and structural management
• Soil density and pore space
• Soil properties for engineering uses
Topic 3: Learning objectives

• Focus on soil solid phase and the pore spaces

between the soil particles
• Learn the soil ability to hold and conduct water and
air for supporting life
• Determine how soils behave
-highways Solid

-building foundations
-tillage manipulations Air

-wind and rain exposure

Water
Topic 3: Soil color

• The Munsell soil color chart

Arranged in 3 components
• Hue (redness or yellowness)
• Value (lightness or darkness,
0 is dark)
• Chroma (intensity and
brightness, 0 is natural gray)
Topic 3: Soil color

• Factors influence soil colors:

-organic matter content – darken the soil
-water content –darker when wet (low color value)
-presence and state of oxidation of iron (bright, high chroma
red) and manganese oxide (black)
others: glauconite (green), calcite (whitish), reduced iron
(gray or blue), gley colors

Determine drainage class in wetlands

Topic 3: Soil texture

Clay Silt Sand

• Large surface area – can • Individual particle so • Gritty
adsorb water small • Particle visible to eye
• High plasticity • Feel smooth or silky – • Dominant mineral -quartz
• Tiny flakes in water flour-like • Low nutrient, infertile
• The pores are small and • Retains and drain water • Large pores – less water
hold water • Not sticky when wet holding
• Easily loss -erosion • Not stick as coherent mass
Topic 3: Soil textural classes
• Most soils are type of loam (Lab 1)
• How to read the diagram?
• Soil particles larger than sands:
2-75mm – gravel/pebbles
75-250mm – cobbles/channers
>250mm – stones/boulders

Soil texture is not related to

artificial or non soil materials –
perlite, peat, styrofoam, etc
Topic 3: Soil textural classes
• Soil particle-size analysis via sedimentation
• Soil is suspended in water, stirred and settled
• Hydrometer can indicate the mass of particles in suspension after
different settling time (Stoke’s Law)
• Hydrometer float higher when more soil in suspension
Topic 3: Soil structure
Aggregation and stabilization
Texture Structure
Topic 3: Soil structure

Structure

• Surface in A-horizons
• Surface in A-horizons
• Rapid change
• Rapid change

• Usual in B-horizons
• B-horizons • Arid and semi-arid regions
• Humid regions
• May present in A-horizons

• Common in B-horizons
• E-horizons • Humid regions
• Inherit or compaction • May present in A-horizons
Topic 3: Attendance and 5-min break

https://forms.gle/umbA3RLjizjBzgDM8
Topic 3: Formation and Stabilization of Soil

• Factors influencing aggregate formation

1. Physical-chemical processes
2. Biological processes
Topic 3: Physical-chemical processes

• Flocculation –mutual attraction among clay and

organic molecules
• The swelling and shrinking of clay masses
Topic 3: Flocculation

• In clays, clumps or floccules of clay particles form aggregation

• Cations will attract the negative charge to form clay domains
• Di and trivalent cations bind clay clumps
• Monovalent cations like sodium (Na+) repel the particles
Topic 3: The swelling and shrinking of clay masses

• Occurs when soil dries out – soil mass shrink in

volume
• Freezing and thawing –formation of ice crystals
• Most pronounced in soil with swelling-types clays
-Vertisols
-Mollisols
-Alfisols
Topic 3: Biological processes
• Activities of soil organisms – burrowing, molding, roots
formation and polysaccharides
• Influence of organic matter
• Influence of tillage
• Influence of iron/aluminium oxide –binds soil aggregates