Transcript Soil in Barbados - Adam

Soil in
Barbados
From MYP unit – factors affecting
the physical Environment of
Barbados – Codrington School
Piers Tainsh
What is soil?
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Watch the two animations at
http://whs.moodledo.co.uk/file.php/1365/E
cosytems%20and%20Soil/What%20is%20So
il.swf
http://www.montereyinstitute.org/courses/
AP%20Environmental%20Science/course%2
0files/multimedia/lesson51/animations/4c_
soil_profile.html
Task: Describe what soil is made from?
What is soil made of
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made up of a mixture of
organic material and minerals.
organic matter comes from
dead plants
the minerals come from the rocks underground.
These rocks are called bedrock.
Because the plants grow on top of the soil and the
rocks are found underground, soil is made up of layers.
The Soil Profile
• There are different sections
• O and A – the organic
layers made from broken
up dead material to make
humus
• B – the topsoil a mix of
humus and minerals
broken down by
weathering of rock
• C – weathered parent rock
• Below this is the rock.
Task: Draw a labeled diagram of a Soil Profile
How are soils different?
• Their texture
depends on
the mix of clay,
silt and sand in
them.
The structure of the soil
Other differences
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pH – acid or alkali
Water content –
Nutrient level
Organisms in it
Is there a pattern of world Soils?
Can you see any link to this?
Or to this map of climate zones?
Longer Answer Task
• From looking at the maps of climate,
vegetation and soils, describe any patterns
that you see and try and explain them
• I notice that places with tropical soil have
rainforest biomes this is because of the
tropical-wet temperature levels
So What Should the Soil of Barbados
be like if it was a Zonal Soil?
• What do
you notice
about this
soil (a
tropical
latasol)
• Annotate a
copy of this
photo to
show the A,
B and C
horizons
Soil in Barbados is Intrazonal
• In this case it
is not climate
or vegetation
that is so
important in
creating the
type of soil it
is the rock LIMESTONE
Task:
Take a picture of a
profile of Barbados soil.
Import it onto a graphics
package and annotate it
with explanations.
Upload it onto your
Google map.