Soils Field Trip Summer 2002

Soils Field Trip Spring 2004

First stop: Rock Primitive Baptist Church. What sort of geomorphic feature is this church located in? On your map identify other features of this type. Identify the correct map sheets in the Lauderdale county soil survey. Identify the soils in these features and excerpt the appropriate descriptions from the soil survey.

Second stop: Identify this location on your map. Evaluate the overall site, create a sketch of the site, describe what you think is the cause of soil exposure in this site.

Spread out along the exposed banks and select a spot to evaluate a soil profile. Smooth the surface so you can measure the soil horizons. Identify the horizons, measure and sketch the horizons and record your other observations. (e.g. presence or absence of roots, color, rocks etc).

Use a small sample of the A and B horizons compare the color of your samples with the munsell soil color chips…. Record these data.

Using the ‘feel method’ describe the texture of the A and B horizons in this location.

Locate this site on the Lauderdale county soil survey. Compare your observations with the soils mapped and described for this site. Make sure the soil characteristics you describe match with the soil survey… is it possible they will not match well?

Mix a small sample of soil with distilled water, use a pH meter to measure the soil pH.

Third and fourth stops: repeat the procedures described above…Make sure you sketch the overall appearance of each site.

At the fourth stop, do you expect to find any difference in the profile at this site? Estimate the age of the trees in the fence row, what does this indicate about the level of disturbance at this site? How will disturbance frequency affect soil development.

In you final write up for this adventure:  identify the location of each site on your maps  Create a sketch map of the details of each site, make sure the sketches are easy to relate to your map points. provide other descriptive information about the location, the surrounding terrain, and other observations  provide labeled and dimensioned soil profiles for each stop  Describe the land use/land cover of the area, how is it different from other parts of the county?  Compare your findings with those mapped by the NRCS, how well do they compare?  Include your site map with geomorphic features labeled and your collecting sites identified.

I don’t want scrawlings on notebook paper… I want field sketches transferred to regular white paper and I want your discussion/evaluation/description to be either typed or done in a very neat hand. This is a laboratory class and we are simply fortunate enough to have as our laboratory the entire world…. But that does not mean you can slop together some bunch of ‘stuff’ and expect me to evaluate it.

Map 1. getting started

Map 2: The field sites