TS

Why classifying a soil?

• To organize the knowledge about soil and to allow a logical and comprehensible investigation and the efficient transmission of it among different people.

• To be able to establish soil classes and group them according to our objective.

• To highlight the main properties of classified soils.

• To constitute, together with the cartography, a base for practical applications

 

Soil Taxonomy system

Argentina adopted Soil Taxonomy system developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as soil classification system. The system focuses on soil properties that can be quantified and not on the processes and factors of soil formation. It is a hierarchical system with six levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family and Series. The  Order level is the most general and where less properties are used for their differentiation, which is increased towards  lower hierarchy levels. Orders, in general, differ according to the presence or absence of diagnostic horizons or general characteristics derived from the forming processes. Suborders differ according to the soil moisture or temperature regime and the parent material. The Great Groups are distinguished among them by the type and sequence of horizons and their degree of expression or the regime of humidity or temperature of the soil.


What does the name of a soil mean?
The names of the soils (up to the Subgroup level) are composed of forming elements. The last letters correspond to the Order to which they belong: Gelisol (el), Histosol (ist), Spodosol (od), Andisol (and), Oxisol (ox), Vertisol (ert), Aridisol (id), Ultisol (ult), Mollisol (oll), Alfisol (alf), Inceptisol (ept) or Entisol (ent). Lets take an Argiudoll as an example, its ending "oll" indicates that it is a Mollisol. The "udoll" ending corresponds to the Suborder and indicates that it is a Molisol with a udic moisture regime. The name is completed with the formative element "Argi" that indicates the presence of an argillic horizon.