Subcategories


 

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Slope

The inclination of the land surface from the horizontal. Percentage of slope is the vertical distance divided by horizontal distance, multiplied by 100. Thus, a slope of 20 percent is a drop of 20 m in 100 m of horizontal distance.

Slurry

A liquid mixture of livestock urine and faeces, with or without some water and or bedding material.

Socio-economic (social economic) science

Field of study that focusses on the relationships between social and economic factors including their interactions.

Sodic soil

Soil with excess of sodium, pH is higher than 7, usually in the range 8 - 10, exchangeable sodium percentage, ESP> 15 and very poor soil structure. These soils need special management and are not used for agriculture; non-sodic soils are without excess of sodium.

Sodification

Increase in the amount of exchangeable Na of a soil (sodic soil = soil containing enough Na to negatively affect most crop plants).

Soil biology

A scientific discipline dealing with living components of soils, which are represented mainly by bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and earthworms as well as by mammals.

Soil care

Taking care of the soil in terms of Soil quality or Soil health.

Soil change

Temporal variation in soil at various time scales at a specific location.

Soil chemistry

A scientific discipline dealing with chemical properties of soils and studies on the influence of fertilizers, pesticides and the other chemical substances applied on or into the soil on soil behaviour and fertility.

Soil classification

Also termed soil taxonomy, is the scientific discipline dealing with grouping of soils into soil morphological units or soil types, according to similar or comparable soil forming properties. Many countries in the world have national soil classification systems but those of FAO, WRB and USDA are used internationally. For transnational comparisons, an international soil classification system, into which the majority of national systems can be translated, is needed. In future, this will be the WRB.

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