USA soil taxonomy

Soil taxonomy developed by United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series.

Example of classification of a soil type

Order: Entisols

Suborder: Fluvents

Great Group: Torrifluvents

Subgroup: Typic Torrifluvents

Family: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, Typic Torrifluvents

Series: Jocity, Youngston.

Another Example

Order: Alfisols

Suborder: Xeralfs

Great Group: Durixeralfs

Subgroup: Abruptic Durixeralfs

Family: Fine, Mixed, Active, thermic Abruptic Durixeralfs

Series: San Joaquin

Link to Official Series Description: http://ortho.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/osd/dat/S/SAN_JOAQUIN.html

Orders

• Alfisols
• Andisols
• Aridisols
• Entisols
• Gelisols
• Histosols
• Inceptisols
• Mollisols
• Oxisols
• Spodosols
• Ultisols
• Vertisols

Related articles

• FAO soil classification
• International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH)
• Soil classification

External links

• USDoA / NRCC soil taxonomy webpage
• Soil taxonomy document
• A Compendium of On-Line Soil Survey Information: Soil Classification Systems