Richard Smith

To celebrate World Soils Day tomorrow, here are typical soils on the diverse geology in SW England. Clay-with-Flints Cretaceous Greensand Triassic Mudstone Chalk Permian Sandstone Permian Breccia Granite Peat Devonian Slate Carboniferous Shale Alluvium Pebble Bed

@ykuzyakov Great research. I wonder how this SOC data compares with the wilderness plots? @Rothamsted

💥NEW in NATURE GEOSCIENCE💥 Soil carbon sequestration by long-term #nitrogen & #phosphorus fertilization doi.org/10.1038/s41561… rdcu.be/eFzmh Increase of C #sequestration by N and P #fertilization in the world-longest 180-year fertilization experiment in Rothamsted

Compacted soil that needs subsoiling…or leave? Fine grained sandy loam soils over Bridport Sands. An interesting field with wild bird seed mix. Abundant earthworms creating casts and burrows in the subsoil after 4 years. #soilrecovery. A pleasure to see @olblackburn

Jethro Tull would be amazed. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@DaveThroup Shocking. Certainly not the River that I remember back in the mid 1980s. Was it that bad during the 1984 drought?

What a state! River Ithon near Llandrindod Wells. Virtually no flow. What water there is choked with algae and stinks.

@Subsolum Thanks.. Geology is Parkstone Sands. River Terrace deposits nearby (orange on map), so maybe stones are alluvial in origin. Interesting that stones are just below A horizon. That is what caught my attention. Coast also nearby. Tsunami deposits 😏?

@rsmithsoil It is not that simple and there can be the 2 geneses which interact. Here it is very likely that this is linked to the solifluction of ancient times at first hypothesis, however the stones are just at the interface between A horizon and the subsoil...

Interesting shallow line of bleached stones in this podzol in a road cutting at Studland Heath. I’m assuming that these are Pleistocene gravels laid down during the ice age? @Subsolum. An ancient soil profile?

Here is another view. I was also amazed at the depth of soil.

This soil profile looks almost natural! A wonderful archaeological dig at the site of a former abbey, Cerne Abbas.

@sjindo928 Abbey was built in 987. Flattened during the dissolution of the monasteries 500 yrs ago. Soil been weathering ever since.

@rsmithsoil What is the date of the Abbey?

Shrinkage of clay creating soil structure. Pedogenesis.

Intense heat on the chalkland soil this year. March vs July.

Eroded soil exposing mole burrows. Now filling up with soil and detritus to form a Krotovina.

Pleased with this photo of a stonechat. Not pin sharp though. Still learning how to use the camera.

Cornwall night and day.

Maxi till!

@scale_william @PlymUni Field here was strip tilled wheat following maize that was direct drilled into grass.

@rsmithsoil @PlymUni No Tillage is the answer in almost all cases to reduce run off.

Great day out with Plymouth Uni designing runoff experiments. Examples of soil structure in a field of wheat showing differences 20m apart. Compacted soil under perched water Slumped seedbed between rows without cover Seedbed under crop cover Ancient hedge bank. @PlymUni

@dvdcliffe There is long term local data but needs plotting on a graph🫤 metoffice.gov.uk/research/clima…

Only a 5 year rainfall data snapshot for TA4 but October is showing up as a consistently wet month. Further evidence if it were needed @rsmithsoil that the harvest window for forage maize is getting smaller.

@dvdcliffe Interesting data. Longer term data available here….👇 Winters getting wetter. metoffice.gov.uk/research/clima…