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"When you try to change a single thing, you find it hitched to everything else in the universe..." 
    John Muir

 

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INTERNATIONAL ENVIROTHON - MISSISSIPPI 2001
  SOILS TEST

1.      What is the term that describes material, such as sand, silt, or clay deposited on land by streams?

    1. soil
    2. alluvium
    3. complex
    4. morphology

 

  1. A tidal marsh is a low, flat, treeless tract of land flooded with seawater influenced by tides and characterized by growth of salt tolerant grasses and similar plants.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. What is a vertical section of the soil extending through all its horizons and into the parent material?

Fill in the blank_________________

 

  1. Neutral Soil is soil having a pH value of between:
    1. 5.1 = 5.8
    2. 5.8 – 6.6
    3. 6.6 – 7.3
    4. 7.3 – 8.0

 

  1. What is a nearly level alluvial plan that borders a stream and is subject to flooding unless protected?

Fill in the blank _______________________

 

  1. Slope refers to the inclination of the land surface from the horizonal.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Soil Loss Tolerance indicates the maximum average annual erosion rate consistent with sustaining the soil’s long-term productivity while avoiding such problems as severe rilling, gullying, and nutrient loss.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Planting grass or legume in a crop rotation helps to build soil nutrients.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Which of the following soil orders is least likely to benefit from deep tillage when utilized in the production of a crop like cotton?
    1. Vertisol
    2. Alfisol
    3. Histosol
    4. Ultisol

 

  1. Which of the following best describes the process of cation exchange in soil?
    1. Positively charges ions bond with negatively charges soil colloid
    2. Negatively charges ions bond with positively charged soil colloid
    3. Positively charged ions bond with positively charged soil colloid
    4. Negatively charged ions bond with negatively charged soil colloid

 

  1. Which of the following elements is commonly considered to be immobile in soil?
    1. Nitrogen
    2. Phosphorus
    3. Potassium
    4. Sulfus

 

  1. Nitrogen moves into ground water primarily by which of the following means?
    1. Percolation
    2. Leaching
    3. Erosion
    4. Reduction

 

  1. The Soil-Plant interface is commonly referred to as the:
    1. Topsoil
    2. Rhizosphere
    3. Lithosphere
    4. Root  Zone

 

  1. Which of the following is used to raise the pH of a soil?
    1. Phosphorus
    2. Potash
    3. nitrogen
    4. lime

 

  1. What is the molecular attraction which holds the surfaces of two substances in contact, that is water and sand particles?
    1. Cohesion
    2. Adhesion
    3. Decision
    4. None of the above

 

  1. What is an alkaline soil?
    1. Precisely any soil that has pH value > 7
    2. Precisely any soil that has pH value < 7
    3. Precisely any soil that has pH value< 6
    4. Precisely any soil that has pH value > 6

 

  1. What is agronomy?
    1. The scientific management of water to improve water quality
    2. The scientific management of air to improve air quality
    3. The scientific management of land, fields, crop production and soils
    4. The scientific management of wildlife habitat

 

  1. Soil permeability can be described as the rate at which air and water move through the soil.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Soil permeability is most greatly affected by:
    1. Soil structure
    2. Soil texture
    3. Soil compaction
    4. Soil organic matter content
    5. All of the above

 

  1. Wetlands are important areas for carbon sequestration.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Soil organic matter consists of only dead and decomposing plant and animal matter.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. Which drainage class of soil would be most likely to have a red matrix color?
    1. Well
    2. Somewhat poorly
    3. Poorly
    4. All of the above

 

  1. Which of the following is the most responsible for giving color to soils?
    1. Nitrogen
    2. Calcium
    3. Magnesium
    4. Iron

 

  1. Which of the following are not soil forming factors?
    1. Time
    2. Color
    3. Parent material
    4. Climate

 

  1. Which soil factor would hold the most nutrients?
    1. Sand
    2. Clay
    3. Silt
    4. Organic matter

 

  1. What is the most common water pollutant from farmland?
    1. Soil sediment
    2. Pesticides
    3. Nutrients
    4. Herbicides

 

  1. The most important soil characteristic that influences the association of vegetation found on the blufflands in LeFleur’s Bluff State Park is:
    1. Low base saturation
    2. Acid soils and weathered
    3. Calcareous clay soils
    4. Rapid permeability

 

  1. Soils on natural river levees are usually:
    1. Excessively wet throughout growing season
    2. Heavy compacted clays
    3. Montmorillonitic sand
    4. Poorly drained, impermeable
    5. Sandy or loamy

 

  1. Of the following soils, the one in which capillary water would ultimately rise to the greatest height is:
    1. Coarse sand
    2. Sandy loam
    3. Clay

 

  1. What structure would most likely be found in the A horizon?
    1. Granular
    2. Platy
    3. Blocky
    4. Massive

 

  1. A good indicator of high soil water tables are high value and low chroma mottles.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. For soils that have developed dominantly gray soil horizons, two conditions would have to have occurred: (1) the soil has to be completely saturated with water, and (2) a source of carbon has to be present.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. At which soil pH would more nutrients be available for plant uptake?
    1. 3.6
    2. 8.3
    3. 6.5
    4. 4.5

 

  1. When a soil is saturated or inundated with water for LONG periods of time it will develop what is known as anaerobic soil conditions.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. If a soil has a Munsell color notation of 7.5YR 5/6, the hue is:
    1. 5
    2. 6
    3. 5/6
    4. 7.5
    5. 7.5YR

 

  1. In wetlands, as organic carbon is being metabolized under anaerobic conditions, methane and sulfide gases may be produced.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. The plant nutrient holding capacity of soil organic matter (humus) is due to:
    1. Ionic charges
    2. pH dependant charges
    3. isomorphic substitution
    4. none of the above

 

  1. The weathering of rock to soil material involves both chemical weathering and physical weathering.
    1. True
    2. False

 

  1. A fragipan is a subsurface soil layer that:
    1. Is dense and compact
    2. Can restrict root growth
    3. Can impede drainage
    4. Is low in organic matter
    5. All of the above
    6. None of the above

 

  1. Ultisols, Mollisols, Aridisols, and Alfisols are all examples of soil series.
    1. True
    2. False

 

For additional information about the Envirothon Program in Arkansas, contact:         

Delia Haak, Ed.D Arkansas Envirothon Coordinator
ArkansasEnvirothonCoodinator@gmail.com
479-238-4671

Debbie Moreland, Arkansas Association Conservation District Director
debbiepinreal@aol.com
501-425-2891

 

 

The Envirothon Program is offered and operated on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, or physical/mental challenges.