Soil Properties UPSC| Biogeography| Physical Geography ~ Civil Services Self Study

Soil properties can be categorized into three parts:

Physical property:

It includes the following:

Soil Colour:

For example, Black soil, Red, Yellow, Gray, etc soil.
Soil color gets from Parent rock and vegetation. It also shows the pH values of the soil.

Soil texture:

Soil texture can be defined as a description of soil particles.
It refers to the proportion of the different size particles such as sand, silt, clay, etc.
As per texture soil can be categorized as Sandy, Silty, loamy, clay soils.

The following are the decreasing order of soil size particles:

Porosity:

The soil has a large pore is called porous soil.
The porosity of sandy soil is approximately half of the of clay soil; that is why clay soil has larger water or air holding capacity than sandy soil.
More porosity means more water or air holding capacity.

Soil Permeability:

Permeability means the rate of moisture or air gets passes between the space of soil.
We can notice that water gets passes easily in the sandy soil and not in the clay soil; hence sandy soil is more permeable than clay soil.
More porous soil is the least permeable.

Soil structure:

Soil structure describes the way in which soil particles are grouped together into a black, layer, or different structure.
For example,
During summer; Clay soil becomes blocky; hence the structure of clay soil is blocky.
Sandy soils found in the Rajasthan region are Grainy in structure.
Columned structure; black soils are columned in structure as they developed verticle cracks during the dry season.
Plate Structure: Horizontal space between particles. Each year river valleys in the flood plains, make the layer structure of khadar deposits.

Chemical properties:

The chemical property of the soil is generally determined by pH values. pH values of the soil are related to the ability of soil to supply nutrients to plants.
pH is based on the relative concentration of relative hydrogen( H+) ions. Acidity increase with the increase of H+ concentration and pH values decrease.
Soil is called acidic if the pH values are less than 6.5.
Soil is called alkaline if the pH value is more than 7.
Maximum nutrients are available to plants when the pH value of the soil lies between 6.5 and 7.
An example of Acidic soil is Podzol and Forest Soil found in the Taiga region characterized by pH values of 3 to 5.
Laterite soil or Latosol is neutral soil having pH values of nearly 7.
Prairies and Chestnut soil in the temperate regions are slightly alkaline soil.

Biological properties of the soil:

Soil contains many organisms and microorganisms that help to enrich air, water, and humus in the soil.
Bacteria presence in soil indicates the neutrality of the soil.
Fungi presence in the soil indicates the acidic nature of the soil.

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