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Soil Moisture and Temperature Regimes in Soil Taxonomy S 9 duripan. These horizons occur mostly in soils of arid and Co., New York, 1956. and semiarid regions and indicate the depth of water 2. Soil Taxonomy: A Basic System of Soil Classification movement. In soils rich in carbonates, the calcic hori­ for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys. Soil Con­ zon tends in time to become plugged with carbonates servation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and cemented into a hard, massive, continuous horizon U.S. Government Printing Office, USDA Handbook that is called petrocalcic. In engineering behavior this 436, 1975. horizon simulates hard country rock. 3. L. J. Bartelli and T. A. Weems. Formation and The diagnostic horizons may not have a direct bearing Classification of Soils. Soil Survey of Tensas Parish, on soil behavior, but they are important building blocks Louisiana, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968, of the system. They are used to group together soils pp. 58-62. that have something in common that is eventually ex­ 4. G. D. Smith. Objectives and Basic Assumptions of pressed in the unique behavior of the soil. For example, the New Classification System. Soil Science, Vol. 96, ai·gillic horizons indicate an accumulation of transported No. 1, July 1963, pp. 6-16. clay; they do not reflect kind and amount of clay, which 5. R. W. Simonson. Lessons From the First Half of · strongly influence engineering behavior. Kind and Soil Survey? I. Classification of Soils. Soil Science, amount of clay aJ'e reflected in the lower categories of Vol. 74, No. 3, Sept. 1952, pp. 240-257. the system, namely, family and series. Thus, there ru:e many kinds of soils that have different engineering properties but that all have argillic horizons. REFERENCES Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Exploration and 1. J. S. Mill. A System of Logic. Longmans, Green Classification of Earth Materials. Soil Moisture and Temperature Regimes in Soil Taxonomy S. W. Buol, North Carolina State University at Raleigh Soil moisture and temperature regimes have been used as criteria for the lation was no more indirect than, for example, the asso­ classification of soils in the United States since the Notional Cooperative ciation of sandy so!ls to sandy parent materials, i.e., Soil Survey adopted Soil Taxonomy in 1965. The quantitative criteria sandstones and sandy alluvial sediments. F\lrthermore, used to define soil moisture regimes are based on the depth, probable soil tempe1·ature and moisture could be measured. It duration, and seasonality of soil saturation and vegetation-restricting soil dryness. Soils with morphological evidence of frequent surface was well known that these parameters of a soil varied flooding are identified. Soils with eJ<tremely low bearing strength be· with time of day and from day to day, season to season, cause of the interaction of their mineral and organic components with and year to year. It was thus apparent that the use of ambient high moisture contents are also taxonomically identified. Crite· soil temperature and moisture data in a soil taxo11omic ria for soil temperature regimes encompass the mean annual soil temp.er· system would require criteria based on absolute ranges ature and the amplitude of the change in soil temperature from summer and probability (3). to winter. Permafrost conditions are identified. Limited ranges for each One of the roles of the National Cooperative Soil Sur­ of these soil temperature and moisture properties are defined and readily identified by connotative formative elements in the formal taxonomic vey is to provide an inventory of the possible uses of land name of each soil classified in modern soil surveys. in the United States. Because much of oUl· land is used for the growth of food and fiber, the soil moisture and temperature criteria used to classify the soil must have some direct inteq,retation for the growth of plants. Much Historically, the study of temperature and moisture con­ of ow· land is also used for buildings and roads, and ditions affecting plant growth has been ascribed to the moistui·e and temperature conditions at any given site science of climatology or meteorology. Earlier, and are au integral part of the planning fo1· such condition (1). some current, attempts to classify soils did not deal di­ Flooding, bearing strength, and permafrost are some Of rectly with soil temperatw·e or moisture content except the features of direct concern. as they related to the chemical or mineralogical proper­ ties of soil. Soil scientists have recognized since the SOIL TEMPERATURE CRITERIA late 1800s that temperature and moistw·e regimes are closely related to soil properties. In 1965, the U.S. Temperatures near the surface of the soil fluctuate di­ National Cooperative Soil Survey officially began to use umally, seasonally, with tJ1e amount and tYPe of plant direct criteria of soil moisture and temperature in its cove1· and the amount of water present in the soil. The taxonomic criteria. Although this was a break with the magnitude of the fluctuations decreases with depth. How­ long-standing tradition of not using soil moisture and ever, at a given site, the mean annual temperatures at temperature data for classification, it could be logically all soil depths, and even below the soil profile, differ argued that a given soil, or given site, had distinct tem­ only slightly (6). The mean annual soil temperature perature and moisture regimes. Even though these fac­ (MAST) is related most directly to the mean annual air tors were closely related to climatic conditions, the re- temperature. Daily temperature variations are detect- 10 able to a depth of about 50 cm (20 in). To avoid time­ ranges drastically depending on particle-size distribution of-day variations, measurements of soil temperature are and natural aggregation of the solid pal'licles. The ten­ taken at this depth. Because short-term weather events sion with which water ls retained in the soil voids is the may influence soil temperatures at 50 cm (20in), anteced­ basis for classifying the various states of soil water. ent weather is considered for individual measurements. In Soil Taxonomy three states of soil water are con­ One major distinction is made with respect to soil sidered. At the dryer end of the range is unavailable temperature: Those soils for which the mean soil tem­ water; when soil moisture tension is greater than 1. 5 perature of the three warmest months differs from the MPa (15 bars) and water is largely not available for plant mean soi~ temperature of the tlu•ee coldest months by less growth. This soil moisture state is considered dry. The than 5°C (9°F) are .referred to as iso and are separated saturated state occurs when there is no tension on the from those soils for which the temperature difference is water and all the void space is filled with water. Avail­ greater than 5°C(9°F). Except for small areas where the able water is that water held in the soil at water tensions climate is greatly modified by tile oceans, these iso areas between 0 ru.1d 1.5 MPa (O and 15 bars) (Table 1). Part are confined to the intertroplcal zone. ln the United States of this water [about 0 to 0.03 MPa (Oto 0.3 bars)] drains iso-temperature soils are found in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, under the force of gravity and is sometimes referred to and some coastal areas of California. as gravitational water. The duration and depth at which Soil temperature regimes in noniso areas and their each of these soil water states occurs in a given soil are limits a1·e given in the tables below. The following table then used to define the various moisture regimes in Soil gives the characteristics of regimes for which mean Taxonomy. winter and summer soil tempera1.ui·es vary by more than 5°C (9°F). Moisture Control Section Regime MAST The depths in the soil at which soil moisture c1·iteria are established are definen by the concept of the moisture Hyperthermic >22°C (> 72°F) Thermic 15 to 22°C (59 to 72°F) control section. The upper boundary of the moisture con­ Mesic B to 15°C (47 to 59°F) trol section is the depth to which a dry soil will be moist­ Frigid < B°C (< 47° F) but not cryic or pergelic ened in 24 h after a 2.5-cm (1-in) rain. The lower bound­ Cryic Oto B°C (32 to 47°F) ary of the moisture control section is the depth to which Pergelic <0°C (<32°F) and permafrost present 7.5 cm (3 in) of water, introduced through the soil sur­ face, will moisten a dry soil in 48 h or the depth to a Mean annual soil temperatures cited above for soils of root-restricting layer such as hard rock, whichever is the cryic regime depend on the following conditions: shallower. Because of the general relation of void size (a) not water-saturated [with leaf cover mean summer to particle-size distribution, rough estimates of the temperature <8°C (<47°F)]; (b) not water-saturated [with­ control-section depths are (a) between 10 and 30 cm (4 out leaf cover mean summer temperature <15"C (<59°F)]; and 12 in) in soil material with either more than 18 per­ (c) water-satu.rated in summer [without leaf cover mean cent clay or more then 50 percent silt and less than 15 summer temperature <13°C C<55°F)J; (d) water-saturated percent sand, or both; (b) between 20 and 60-cm (8 and in summer [with leaf cover mean summer temperature 24-in) depths in textures coarser than those given above <6°C C<43°F)]; (e) organic soils frozen at some depth 2 but less than 70 pe1·cent sand if there is no clay or less months after summer solstice or influenced by ocean water.
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