Web Soil Survey

     The USDA's Web Soil survey is a fantastic tool for discovering the properties of a soil in a specified area of interest (AOI). This tool can give you wonderful and in-depth information on a wide variety of a soil features such as its setting (topography and parent material), typical profile (composition of each layer), properties and qualities (hydrology, slope, and depth), interpretative groups (land use classification), and minor components. The Web Soil survey is very user friendly, however, the initial navigation of the website can be a little tricky when first learning and the Map Unit Descriptions use a large amount of Soil Sciences jargon. I am personally familiar with this tool and the terminology used from both my education and career, but, for a new user there a plenty of things to learn. Terminology such as the letters for each layer of a soil profile and their meaning, KSAT, land capability classifications, and hydric soil ratings are not common-sense terms or overlap with many other fields. However, the Web Soil Survey does give a Description section that helps individuals learn more about what your map means for your purposes and helps translate some of the terminology.

    Above is an example image of an AOI in Dare County, North Carolina that covers a region heavy in Pocosin swamps. This wonderful tool is useful at finding where Pocosin swamps occur due to the soil composition being a huge determining factor in the creation of these swamps and the Map Unit Setting description defining what habitat covers the land. Once an AOI is created, the map will show you exactly where each Map Unit covers. In this example, the Map Units consist of Pungo Muck (Pocosin), Belhaven Muck (Pocosin), Psamments, and Water. The soil is so influential on the flora, fauna, and developmental potential of an area, it is even visible without the orange lines from the satellite image alone.

    To the left is an example of a Map Unit Description that can be found by clicking on any one of the Map Units in the above image. As stated before, each part of the Map Unit is divided into sections explaining different factors that compose and influence the soil. In this example of Belhaven Much (BvA), it can be shown that the landform consists of Pocosins, depressions, and flats in a low elevation area that receives a large amount of rainfall. All of this helps to create a very swampy area from the setting alone. In addition, this unit has incredibly deep O layers (decomposing organic matter). Most habitats such as forests and grasslands have an O layer of a few inches at most. In the BvA Map Unit, The decomposition of such a massive amount of organic material causes very acidic soil from the release of CO2 and H+ cations that form carbonic acid. This creates the acidic soil conditions that Pocosin swamps are known for. The soil is also very poorly drained and has an extremely high water table creating the wet conditions of a swamp. The interpretive groups provide insight into possible anthropogenic uses for the soil. The 4W land capability classification determines that this soil is very limited in what can be grown and/or requires a large amount of management. The Hydrolic Soil Group C/D informs the user that this soil has a very slow infiltration rate creating a high chance of runoff. Overall, these Map Unit descriptions are incredibly useful for learning more about a specific soil and can help users across a variety of professions such as environmental scientists, farmers, and developers learn more about where they are working. The soil of a region also not only largely determines what flora and corresponding fauna can survive somewhere but also what areas are fit for human settlement.