ENV100Y5 Lecture 8: November 6 & 8 - Soil
69
ENV100Y5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
69 documents
Document Summary
These lectures will help understand: the fundamentals of soil science, soil forming processes and soil properties, causes and consequences of soil erosion and degradation, principles of soil conservation. Central case: mer bleue bog: a 35km2 protected wetland, peat soils formed over 8000 years; up to 6m thick, carbon balance in peat, primary production stores carbon, decomposition releases carbon. Interdisciplinary research project studying the influence of climate on carbon balance (and vice versa) Soil is a complex material: mineral matter, organic matter, water, gases, dead/living microorganisms; decaying material, bacteria, algae, earthworms, insects, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, supports plant growth. Soil formation starts with bedrock: parent material = base geologic material of soil, bedrock = (cid:272)o(cid:374)ti(cid:374)uous (cid:373)ass of solid ro(cid:272)k (cid:894)the earth"s (cid:272)rust(cid:895, regolith (sediment) = broken-up rock. Weathering = processes that break down rocks: physical (mechanical) = no chemical changes in parent material, chemical = substances chemically interact with parent material, biological = organisms break down parent material.
