Soils Study Guide
The 2012 Area IV Envirothon Committee has decided to utilize the most up to date soil survey information, and by doing so will NOT be supplying each school with a copy of the Preble County Soil Survey. Starting around 2002, the National Cooperative Soil Survey decided that the booklet format soil survey was no longer a practical way to deliver soil survey information in a timely manner. Instead, soil surveys are now updated each year, and are provided in digital formats throughout the nation. Each school should utilize the websites listed below to obtain the information that will be part of this years contest. The Web Soil Survey, and USDA Soil Data Mart are the formats that contain the most up to date soils information, and in utilizing these formats, students will become accustomed to today’s soil survey. A packet containing selected information from the web soil survey, and soil data mart will be supplied at the soil station of the event for you to use.
The following list of topics is a summary of key terms, soil interpretive tables, narrative sections and soil map unit and series descriptions from the Soil Survey of Preble County which participants in the 2012 Envirothon Competition should concentrate their study time to prepare for the soils questions on the test.
http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/
Todays soil survey maps are delivered through Web Soil Survey. In Web Soil Survey, students should be familiar in navigating to a location via the quick navigation tool. To access the 2012 Area 4 Envirothon location use the Latitude and Longitude tool, and navigate to 39o 35’ 49.99”N 84o 40’ 20.54”W. This should take you to a location on the map of Swann Beatty Rd, just west of Stephen Young Rd. (note, you may need to look at help section of the latitude and longitude section to get the proper formatting to input the above coordinates). Once you have navigated to the location, you will need to set the area of interest (AOI), to obtain soil survey information. After setting the area of interest, students should become familiar with the Shopping Cart (free) function. This feature creates a customized soil survey report for the area indicated in the AOI.
You can navigate to almost any area in the United States by simply using the quick navigation tools, and the soil survey of that area will be available to you.
For a more detailed exaplanation on using all of the features provided in Web Soil Survey please refer to the following site; http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/Help/WSS_HomePage_HowTo.pdf
http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Survey.aspx?State=OH
The easiest way to access soil survey interpretations is through the Soil Data Mart. The soil data mart allows users to download spatial and tabular data, in a couple of different formats. For the Envirothon, students should focus on generating reports from the Preble County survey area. Once you have highlighted the “Preble County Survey Area”, and clicked on the “Generate Reports” button, you will be directed to a new page which allows you to select mapunits, and then you will need to select the report which you would like to generate. Students will be provided with the appropriate tables for the contest, but should be familiar with the following reports.
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Acreage and Proportionate Extent of the Soils
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Component Legend
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Engineering Properties
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Map Unit Decriptions (brief) – SOI
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Non Irrigated Yields by Map Unit – Corn, Soybeans, and Winter Wheat.
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Water Features
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Physical Soil Properties
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Selected Soil Interpretations
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ENG – Constructions Materials; Topsoil (OH)
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ENG – Septic Tank Absorption Fields (OH)
You can still access the narrative sections of the current "Booklet Soil Survey" by accessing the following link: http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Manuscripts/OH135/0/Preble_OH.pdfThe Table of Contents lists all the narrative sections in the report. For example, the section entitled, "Formation of Soils" begins on page 321. The narrative sections and the page numbers in the report on which they begin which will be most useful on this event are listed below:
- Use and management of soils…p. 215
- Crops and pasture p. 216
- Engineering p. 241
- Engineering index properties pp. 251
- Water features p. 255
- Formation of the soils p. 321 - 324
- Glossary p. 329
http://www.ohiosoils.com/
Ohiosoils.com has links to several different soil websites. The “IntroductionTo Soils” link gives a brief overview of soils, and would be a good source of information for the soils section of the Envirothon. From Ohiosoils.com you can also find links to the websites mentioned above.
Good luck on your preparations for the 2012 Area IV Envirothon!
Matt Deaton, CPSS, ODNR/DSWR
