What is Soil, its Types and Formation
What is soil?
Soil is the basic unit of agriculture. The production of any crop begins with the soil. Here is the proper definition of soil.
Soil is the natural, three dimensional and dynamic body by which plant gets its nutrition like water,minerals and gaseous exchange in its roots.
Types of soil:
There are mainly six type of soil and every soil is different in structure and composition.
6 basic soil types are:
- Alluvial soil
- Black soil
- Red soil
- Desert soil
- Mountain soil
- Laterite soil
Alluvial Soil:
The most fertile soil consists of good amount of organic matter,moisture,better soil structure and lack in nitrogen content. Mainly found in northern plane states like U.P, haryana,punjab,bihar the main crops grown are wheat(triticum aistivum),paddy(oryza sativa),maize(zea mays),potato(sollanum tuberosum).
Black soil:
These soils are mainly formed by the lava flow and dark blackish in colour. Mainly found in Gujarat, Maharashtra, part of odisha.
These soils are rick in iron content magnesium and potash but lack in phosphorus content. The main crop grown in these regions is cotton(gossypium.spp).
Red soil:
These soils are red in colour. The reason behind the red colour of these soil is the composition of iron and when iron composition gets low then these soil turns yellowish in colour. These soils are mainly formed in deccan platue regions like odisha,Karnataka,andhra pradesh.
Desert soil:
These soils are not well developed for crop production purpose because of the excessive evaporation. The annual rainfall in these regions are quite low. Due to less moisture availability these soils have pH more than 7 and hence treat as the alkaline soils. These soils are mainly found in Rajasthan.
Mountain soils:
These soils are formed by the accumulation of organic matter from the growth of the forests. They are found in the Himalayan regions like J&K himachal pradesh and uttarakhand. The main horticultural crops grown are apple and saffron.
Laterite soil:
These soils are formed by the excessive leaching and by the alluviation and illuviation and the entire process called as humification.
These soils are found in the Kerala,Karnataka,odisha.
How The soil forms:
Soil is generally formed by the weathering of rocks. And soil is basically made up of minerals, microorganisms (also called as the soil biota),organic matter,air and water.
Weathering of rocks:
weathering of rocks is the way of soil formation. Here the term weathering means the DISINTEGRATION. The disintegration of the large rock particles into smaller ones to form soil called as WEATHERING OF ROCK.
The weathering of rock is takes place by many ways
- by water
- by air
- organic weathering
- temperature
- chemical weathering
Factors effecting soil formation:
Few factors are there which influence the soil during its formation.
- climate-It consists of temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind velocity.
- parent material- The parent material of soil is rock its nature and characteristics.
- Microorganisms- microorganisms are bacteria,fungi,virus etc. The microorganisms helps in the formation of the soil by decomposition of organic material.
Image Source: google.com
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