1. Soil Classification

2. What is purpose of classification?
“Chaos was the rule of nature; order was the dream of man”. Henry Adams
Adams 19th century historian

3. How would you go about classifying soil?
Organize knowledge; soring and retrieving information; communication; mapping; land valuation

4. Ethnopedology Study of folk soil knowledge Many ways of knowing
“folk”, “traditional”, “indigenous”, “local”
Soil knowledge held by people who have occupied land for a long time
Many ways of knowing
Western science looked down on local soil knowledge as unscientific.
Folk soil knowledge uses spatial and time scales much more relevant to sustainable agriculture.

5. Local soil knowledge Time-tested
Strategies that have been tried over centuries (or millennia) compared to < 100 yrs of industrial agriculture
Provides insights about human responses to change (climate change, soil erosion)
Many properties used (taste!, texture, color, etc) but all are about function of soil in land use (need for water, nutrients, aeration, support)
Does not imply that indigenous groups have not substantially altered land or caused environmental degradation problems; can learn from mistakes, too

6. Region Maya occupied 2000 BC to 1500 AD

7. Maya occupation of Yucatan peninsula
1200 BC to AD 1300
How did the Maya manage to feed millions of people for thousands of years in an area that is today sparsely populated and agriculturally poor?

8. Maya Lowlands Highlands
relatively small area is composed of n intricate mosaic of widely varied micro-environments

9. Climates of Maya Lowlands:
BS semi-arid steppe
Aw tropical savanna
Am tropical wet-dry
Af tropical rainforest

10. roughly north-south transect showing (400 – 500 miles)
Eocene limestone platform
changes in veg. assemblages, structural geology, relief, and access to groundwater one of the great mysteries about Maya is how they were able to feed millions of people for 1000s of years in ag poor sparsely pop region

11. Agricultural adaptive regions in the Maya lowlands
Gave rise to a vast array of of agricultural intensification techniques; crazy quilt; managed mosaic; very valuable for region as a whole,

13. Lari, Peru 1500 yrs agriculture Terraces
Compared to uncultivated: thicker A, lower bulk density, higher organic carbon, higher N and P;
Impressive management suggests a substantial body of soil knowledge

14. 50 unique soil types in a 4 tiered hierarchy; most names are in Quechua, some borrowed from Spanish

15. FAO/UNESCO
International system, adopted for purposes of creating a global map
Has been replaced by World Reference Base
Uses some classes from other systems
Food and Agriculture organization
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

20. USDA Soil Taxonomy system
Seventh Approximation
Originally 10 Great Orders
Have added two more (Andisols, Gelisols)
Many include another order “ Anthrosols”
Hierarchical system

21. ORDER SUBORDER SUBORDER SUBORDER SUBORDER GREAT GROUP SUBGROUP FAMILY
SERIES

22. Hierarchical categories
Order
Suborder
Great group
Subgroup
Family
Series
Alfisol
Udalfs
Hapludalfs
Typic hapludalfs
Fine,loamy,mixed,superactive,frigid
Nebish
Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Hapludalfs