What is Gleysol soil?
A gley is a wetland soil (hydric soil) that, unless drained, is saturated with groundwater for long enough to develop a characteristic gleyic colour pattern.
What are Gley soils good for?
With adequate drainage, Gley soils can be used for field or vegetable cropping, or for high-producing pasture. This profile shows the typical characteristics of a Gley soil, where the entire subsoil appears to be affected by a seasonally high water table.
What causes Gleying in soil?
What is gleying? It is when low oxygen soil conditions (such as a high water table) cause iron and manganese to reduce, and make the soil gray.
Are Gleysols acidic?
Summary description of Gleysols Parent material: a wide range of unconsolidated materials, mainly fluvial, marine and lacustrine sedi- ments of Pleistocene or Holocene age, with basic to acidic mineralogy. Environment: depression areas and low landscape positions with shallow groundwater.
Is peaty soil fertile?
Peaty soils are not very fertile and because of this they are not very good for crop farming.
Is gley soil well drained?
Gley soil with very poor drainage and significant peat development on surface often referred to as a peaty gley.
Is gley soil good for agriculture?
There are two types in Ireland – surface water gley and ground water gley. In Ireland, the soil you are most likely to find is fertile brown earth – although it is very shallow. It is rich and fertile, hence 64% of the total land mass is used for agriculture.
What is the process of Gleying?
Gleying – gleying occurs in waterlogged, anaerobic conditions when iron compounds are reduced and either removed from the soil, or segregated out as mottles or concretions in the soil. Marshy wetlands often contain gleyed soils.
What is Lithosols soil?
Definition of lithosol : any of a group of shallow azonal soils consisting of imperfectly weathered rock fragments.
What grows well in peaty soil?
Peaty soil has problems with retaining moisture – draining will ensure that plants flourish in it. To ensure plants perform well, this soil is mixed with organic matter. Shrubs like witch hazel and heather often do well in this type of soil. Vegetables such as legumes and brassicas also do well in this soil.
What types of plants grow best in peaty soil?
Soils and soil management Drained fen or light peat soils are among the most fertile arable soils. Crops such as potatoes, sugar beet, celery, onions, carrots, lettuce and market garden crops are commonly grown.
What is a gleyic soil?
Gleysols occur throughout the world where groundwater comes near to the surface, causing soils to become wet for a prolonged part of the year. They are particularly abundant in the low-lying river basins. Soils having gleyic properties (properties associated with prolonged wetness) within 50 cm from the soil surface.
What is gleysol soil used for?
Gleysol. Gleysol, one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Gleysols are formed under waterlogged conditions produced by rising groundwater. In the tropics and subtropics they are cultivated for rice or, after drainage, for field crops and trees.
Where do Gleysols occur?
Gleysols occur throughout the world where groundwater comes near to the surface, causing soils to become wet for a prolonged part of the year. They are particularly abundant in the low-lying river basins.
What is the genesis of Gleysols?
Genesis of Gleysols. The formation of Gleysols is conditioned by excessive wetness at shallow depth (less than 50 cm from the soil surface) in some period of the year or throughout the year.