The Real Florida

1
The Real Florida

• Soils

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Why is soil important to ecosystems in Florida?

• NutrientsN, P, K, Ca,
• Texturesupport, soil moisture, drainage
• Depthrooting depth, support

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What is soil and how do we classify it?
Surface

• 12 orders worldwide
• End in ol suffix e.g. mollisol, entisol
• Classified like organisms with hierarchical
  Linnaen-like classification scheme
• 7 orders in Florida, 4 important ones
• Soil horizons are part of classification
• O horizon is organic matter
• A is zone of eluviation
• B is zone of illuviation
• Not all soils have all horizons. Some horizons
  better developed in certain soil types.

O Horizon
A Horizon
B Horizon
C Horizon Regolith or Bedrock
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12 orders worldwide7 of them in Florida

• 4 important ones in Florida
• 1) Histosolsbrown areas
• 2) Entisolspink areas green in South or near
  rivers
• 3) Spodosolslight yellow
• 4) Ultisols (some alfisols)light blue

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Histosols

• Organic muck soils
• Dark often found associated with wetlands,
  especially The Everglades
• Very important agriculturallylots of sugarcane
  and 40 of winter vegetable crop in the U.S.

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Histosols (continued)

• Also provide 25 of the nations sugarcane crop
  (Big Sugar)
• Problem is subsidencewhen uncovered by water,
  they oxidize and are respired to carbon dioxide

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Spodosols

• Sandy, acidic soils
• Have a spodic or organic matter horizon with
  Aluminum or Iron within 2 m of surface
• Flatwoods and wet or dry prairies
• Supports pine plantations, blueberries, citrus
  etc.
• Fertilizer important
• Here in this area in uplands

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Ultisols

• Argillic (clay) subsurface horizon (red in this
  photo)
• Low base saturation (fertility)
• North Florida mostly in forested areas (temperate
  zone forests like oak-beech)

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Entisols

• Poorly developed soils
• Little horizon development
• Relatively young
• Sandhills, scrub
• In dynamic areas due to tides, flooding,
  etcmangroves, coastal dunes, river terraces

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What is karst?

• Limestone dominated landscape
• Heres an important chemical equation in Florida
  CaCO3 H2O ??H2CO3 H
• Sinkhole formation

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Climate and soils conspire to create the
landscape of water

• Each of the factors affect one another
• e.g. draining of water results in soil subsidence