Soil particle size & it's impact on soil fertility.
How do the particles which make up the soil affect soil properties? how does the soil surface to volume ratio affect its properties?
Nutrient availability - clay with the highest surface to volume ratio holds nutrients the tightest via cation-exchange availability
Clay minerals, or phyllosilicates, consist of strongly bound sheets of silica tetrahedrae and alumina octahedrae which are held together by only weak interatomic forces between the layers, often hydrogen bonding from water. In kaolinite, one of the most important clay minerals, a single sheet of corner connected Silica tetrahedrae is connected by common apex oxygen atoms to a single sheet of edge-connected alumina octahedrae (it is called a 1:1 phyllosilicate).
Water dynamics: Sand allows water to readily percolate while clay retains it. How does this affect water availability for the roots? This is based on the fact that as the diameter of the particle increases, the surface area to volume ration will decrease. It is on this surface area that water is held, thus the larger the diameter the less water held.
Given this fact, what should be the 'best' ratio of soil particle types?.... this soil known as loam is made up of all 3 size classes - clay, silt and sand.
How does soil formation occur? what forces ( wind, river, freezing etc. ) are most critical in our region?
Water dynamics ...........Soil life..................Profile of the soil............Soil particle size & effects...............soil pH.....ecosystesm soils........introduction
