Instructor: Jerry Davis
Email: jerry@sfsu.edu
Dept of Geography & Human Environmental Studies
San Francisco State University
Study Guide (entire semester, but current only for for first exam)
Links
SFSU links
General soils links
- USDA NRCS: Natural Resources Conservation Service (used to be called Soil Conservation Service)
- University of Wisconsin Soil Science Department home page
- A long list of soil links from Carleton College
Soil Properties
Parent Material
Organisms
- Guide to Wheat Diseases & Pests
- gives you an idea of the range of organisms, including many fungi, that cause problems for agriculture
Soil Data: Surveys and SSURGO data
- Guide to Reading and Mapping SSURGO Data (Davis)
- USDA NRCS Soil Geography Page: access to various datasets and info
- USDA NRCS Soil Data Mart for downloading SSURGO data
- California Soil Surveys (for narrative text, interpretation
- Web soil survey (may not work for the project).
- U.S. General Soil Map (STATSGO2)
- Really cool map tool for Google Earth, etc. Zoom in to see polygons
Field Book
Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils Order the hardcopy on waterproof paper for $24 (2006). Follow the directions at the web site to get to the order page.
Soil Classification
- USDA NRCS:
Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Official Soil Series Descriptions
- Soil Taxonomy - principal reference to soil classification.
- Keys to Soil Taxonomy - taxonomic keys for field classification.
- Official Series Descriptions (OSD) - standard descriptions and characteristics of soil series. On the OSD index page, proceed to "View OSD by Series Name."
- Soil Classification Database (SC) - soil classification and series names.
- Distribution Maps of Dominant Soil Orders - images and a map.
- Soil Taxonomy Orders overview
- A compendium
of online soil survey information
- from the Netherlands -- includes a comparison of soil classification systems