What factors determine soil characteristics?

What will be an ideal response?


Answer: The factors determining soil characteristics are parent material, climate, vegetation, time, and landscape relief and location. Parent material determines which minerals dissolve and which precipitate during chemical weathering. Climate and vegetation are closely linked variables in soil formation. Vegetation is denser in moister climates and the combination of greater moisture and greater development of organic acids from decaying vegetation leads to soils with the most distinctive horizons. Soils mature through time, because the effects of chemical weathering add up. Soils generally become thicker and contain more clay or calcite or both in their B horizons with increasing age. Unchanging or very slow changing landscapes have mature soils. Unstable landscapes, where rates of erosion or deposition are faster than rates of soil formation, are marked by immature soils or no soil."

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

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The zone of the ocean with a very high net primary productivity (NPP) is the

a. euphotic zone b. abyssal zone c. bathyal zone d. coastal zone e. benthic zone

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

The English language is a "second" or "third" language in many regions where it is used as a(n)

A) colonial dialect. B) expansion diffusion. C) Indo-European import. D) global lingua. E) lingua franca.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Low pressure areas generally experience cloudy, unstable weather conditions

Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

Environment is defined as:

A. the surrounding conditions that affect organisms. B. everything that affects an organism during its lifetime. C. all organisms including people affecting many components. D. More than one of the choices are correct. E. None of the choices are correct.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences