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Soil Change Guide - Procedures for Soil Survey and Resource Inventory

This Guide is designed for soil survey, vegetation, and ecological site or unit inventory work in order to help soil scientists and other inventory specialists collect interpretable data about soil change within the human time scale.

Cover of the Soil Change Guide.

This Guide describes a sampling system to measure dynamic soil properties for all major land uses (except urban lands where the land and soil have been significantly reshaped). The Guide includes instructions for project planning, field execution, and data analysis and storage. Procedures for gathering general management history on croplands and vegetation data on other lands are included to verify and validate the management regime or plant community where dynamic soil property data are collected. Vegetation data are also collected to provide context for interpreting dynamic soil properties and contribute to the interpretation of soil-plant-hydrologic interactions.

Download the Soil Change Guide (includes text only; see below for worksheets, forms, and Excel applications)

Soil Change Guide (15.19 MB)
Soil Change Guide flyer (657.67 KB)

 

Planning Documents (from Appendix 1)

Project Outline (54 KB)
Workplan Worksheet (488.5 KB)

Sampling Requirements Tools (from Appendices 2 and 3)

Multi-Scale Sampling Requirements Evaluation Tool (MSSRET) Example (117 KB)
Multi-Scale Sampling Requirements Evaluation Tool (MSSRET) Worksheet (114.5 KB)
Multi-Scale Variance Estimator (54 KB)
Selecting Random Points on a Circular Plot (52.5 KB)

Field Forms (from Appendix 3)

Gap Intercept (63.38 KB)
Line-Point Intercepts (76.34 KB)
Pedoderm and Pattern Classes (plot) (74.39 KB)
Photo Record (one form per plot) (59.16 KB)
Photocard (includes example) (35.5 KB)
Plant Production Data Form (87.29 KB)
Plot Master - Forest (Circular Plot) (83.47 KB)
Plot Master - Range (Square Plot) (126 KB)
Overstory and Understory Veg Plots (184.32 KB)
Soil Aggregate Stability Test (83.39 KB)
Soil sample, Db (core), Penetration Resistance, Forest Floor_FOREST (109.51 KB)
Soil sample, Db (core), Penetration Resistance, Pedoderm_RANGE (491.39 KB)
Pedon Description (77.5 KB)

Data Entry Sheets (Interim Storage) (from Appendix 3)

Forest Floor Litter (866.5 KB)
Field Observations for Canopy and Basal Gap (84.5 KB)
Line Point Intercept (LPI) (66.5 KB)
Pattern Observations (29 KB)
Calculation of Penetration Resistance (919.5 KB)
Plant Production Data Form (76 KB)
Plot Master and Project Metadata (68 KB)
Calculation of Bulk Density (samples collected as cores and entire sample is oven dried) (1.21 MB)
Calculation of Bulk Density (samples collected as cores and sub-sample is oven dried) (1.24 MB)
Calculation of an Average Soil Aggregate Stability Value (3 replicates) (83 KB)

Citation

Tugel, Arlene J., Skye A. Wills, and Jeffrey E. Herrick. 2008. Soil Change Guide: Procedures for Soil Survey and Resource Inventory, Version 1.1. USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, NE.

 

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