Soil Science 315

Problem Set 6

Monday, February 27, 2006

Due Friday, March 3, 2006 at 2:25 PM

Redo due, Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at 2:25 PM

Instructions: You may discuss the problems with anyone but the final work should be done independently. Respond to each question precisely as instructed by the question. For example, if the question says explain one reason only explain one reason even if you know many reasons and if the question asks you to calculate a volume do not give a mass. Be sure to label all numeric answers with the correct units. Use correct English and complete sentences for explanations. Each problem will be marked as accepted or “re-do”. There are no “re-do’s” of “re-do’s”. Re-do’s” are not accepted if an “honest” attempt was not submitted on the original due date. All portions of each problem set must be accepted to receive credit for the entire set. When submitting a problem set be sure to indicate the problem set number and if the submission is a “re-do” in the upper right corner.

Give only the best letter answer to the questions below:

1.You are living in the soil like a centipede and keeping a journal of observations using a recording. Just to confuse your descendents you say some things that are not true. The statement that is most likely NOT true is a) today the soil got wetter therefore it could have rained a day or two ago b) today while exercising in my borrow I saw a root c) yesterday my borrow seemed to shrink so there could have been a big machine overhead d) in the past couple of months the temperature has been cooling so winter may have arrived.

2. You are given a new mineral potting soil with a bulk density (Db) of 1.2. You place 10 L of the oven dry soil in pot. The amount of water in liters (L) to just water saturate the soil is a) 6.1 b) 4.5 c) 5.5 d) 120

3. In your planning district a 1 hectare (10⁴ m²) field has been contaminated to a depth of 10 cm (0.1 m). The cost to clean the soil is $15.00 kg^-1. If the soil bulk density is 1.6 Mg m^-3 and 1000 kg equals 1 Mg and the cost of the soil cleaning is a) $24,000 b) $1,600,000 c) $9,375 d) $24,000,000

4. You are a consultant to a tree nursery. The nursery is developing a field to start seedlings. Every year the soil will be tilled before planting and during the year there will many trips with machinery to manage the tree stock. Irrigation will be frequently used. The soil texture best suited for the nursery is a) sandy clay b) loam c) silt d) loamy sand.

5. You are called by the University of Wisconsin Physical Plant Grounds Department to assist with restoring the athletic field just west of the Natatorium that was used as a staging area during the construction of a power plant. You have seen all the equipment and materials that have been moving around and been stored in the area. Pre-construction soil descriptions report silt loam with weak and moderate blocky structure about 40 cm deep over clay loam with weak blocky structure. You describe the soil after the construction phase. A possible soil description of the first 40 cm, assuming there was no erosion or accumulation of new materials, is a) clay, massive b) silt loam, platy c) clay loam, weak blocky d) sandy loam, platy.

6. The Bt horizon has a matrix color of 10YR 6/2 and iron concentrations of 10YR 6/6. The soil forming processes responsible for the morphology of this horizon are a) biota and argilluviation b) argilluviation and gleyization c) laterization and podzolization d) gleyization and melonization.

7. The soil that is likely the wettest is a) Coarse-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Fragiochrept b) Fine, illitic, mesic Mollic Hapludalf c) Fine-loamy, mixed Aquic Eutroboralf d) Loamy-skeletal, mixed Borollic Lithic Haplargid.