Soil types AIDGAP
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Soil types AIDGAP will help students to identify soils in the field in Britain and Ireland. It contains two separate keys:
- Introductory key: for beginners to identify major soil types in the field.
- Specialist key: for more advanced students to place a soil within a subdivision of soil types.
Soil is the upper surface-layer of the earth, and includes both mineral and organic material. A true soil has distinct horizontal layers (or horizons), which are more organic nearer the surface but more mineral below. The soil horizons can be viewed in a vertical section called a soil profile.
Textbooks often include neat profiles showing, for example, the ‘ideal’ brown earth or podsol. Unfortunately soils in the field rarely conform precisely to the textbook models, which some students will find disappointing. But this does not mean that the effort of digging a pit is a waste of time. All soils show the effects of water movement, aeration and organic matter. So once these soil-forming processes are understood and recognised in the field, the main groups of soil types become easier to distinguish.
This guide is part of Field Studies Council’s AIDGAP series (Aids to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants). Our AIDGAP guides are accessible identification keys, suitable for non-specialists from age 16+. As with all guides in the series, the Soil types AIDGAP underwent extensive testing before publication, by beginners and specialists alike. The author has revised this, the first published version, in the light of the testers’ experience.
