General Course Questions

Maja, the sizes of the algae cells and the bacteria cells are almost the same. Why the room in soil is limited to algae? Is that because algae cells like to clump together?

DepengR8198uan (talk)‎

Algae are a very diverse group of organisms and they include unicelluar organisms (which would be of the similar size as bacteria) to mulitcellular organisms (such as giant kelp that can grow to up to 50 m in length).

MajaKrzic (talk)‎

Hi Maja,

Will a soil with no B horizon always be classified as Regosol? For example soil with Ap=10cm, Cg1=20cm, Cg2=30cm is not Chernozemic for sure, but could it be Gleyesol?

Thank you

DianaVyssokikh (talk)‎

Hi Diana, according to Maja, "You have to be careful re. making decisions about a soil being a Chernozem, since many soil types will have an Ah horizon. But not every Ah is the Chernozemic Ah (diagnostic horizon. The Chernozemic Ah horizon, need to have several specific properties (e.g., C/<17/1, base satauration >80%, Ca2+ as the dominant ion on the exchange complex)"

DepengR8198uan (talk)‎

Hi Depeng,

Thank you for your reply. The reason I am confused is that the lab. manual says that Regosol is a soil that could not be classified as anything else, but from several Maja's replies to soil order questions it seems that Regosol is primarily a soil with no B horizon. However, say for Gleyesol, we need to have B or C horizon gleyed; but it does not stress that we must have a B horizon of any kind. If so, then can the soil I mentioned above (with Ah and Cg horizons only) be Gleyesol?

DianaVyssokikh (talk)‎