The Miami soil series is the state soil of Indiana.
Soil series as established by the National Cooperative Soil Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service are a level of classification in the USDA Soil Taxonomy classification system hierarchy. The actual object of classification is the so-called soil individual, or pedon. Soil series consist of pedons that are grouped together because of their similar pedogenesis, soil chemistry, and physical properties. More specifically, each series consists of pedons having soil horizons that are similar in soil color, soil texture, soil structure, soil pH, consistence, mineral and chemical composition, and arrangement in the soil profile. These result in soils which perform similarly for land use purposes.
Indiana is a U.S. state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U.S. state on December 11, 1816. Indiana borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, Kentucky to the south and southeast, and Illinois to the west.
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The less sloping Miami soils are used mainly for corn, soybeans, or winter wheat. The steeper areas are used as pasture, hayland, or woodland. Significant area has been converted to residential and commercial uses. There are 794,994 acres (3,217 km2) of Miami soils mapped in Indiana.
Maize, also known as corn, is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The leafy stalk of the plant produces pollen inflorescences and separate ovuliferous inflorescences called ears that yield kernels or seeds, which are fruits.
Winter wheat are strains of wheat that are planted in the autumn to germinate and develop into young plants that remain in the vegetative phase during the winter and resume growth in early spring. Classification into spring or winter wheat is common and traditionally refers to the season during which the crop is grown. For winter wheat, the physiological stage of heading is delayed until the plant experiences vernalization, a period of 30 to 60 days of cold winter temperatures.
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs. Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay for animal fodder. Pasture in a wider sense additionally includes rangelands, other unenclosed pastoral systems, and land types used by wild animals for grazing or browsing.
Miami soils formed in calcareous, loamy till on the Wisconsin Till Plains. The native vegetation is hardwood forest. Miami soils are fertile and have a moderate available water capacity. Indiana is nationally ranked for agricultural production because of the highly productive Miami soils along with other prime farmland soils in the State. [1]
Pedogenesis is the process of soil formation as regulated by the effects of place, environment, and history. Biogeochemical processes act to both create and destroy order (anisotropy) within soils. These alterations lead to the development of layers, termed soil horizons, distinguished by differences in color, structure, texture, and chemistry. These features occur in patterns of soil type distribution, forming in response to differences in soil forming factors.
Calcareous is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
Loam is soil composed mostly of sand, silt, and a smaller amount of clay. By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–silt–clay, respectively. These proportions can vary to a degree, however, and result in different types of loam soils: sandy loam, silty loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam, and loam. In the USDA textural classification triangle, the only soil that is not predominantly sand, silt, or clay is called "loam". Loam soils generally contain more nutrients, moisture, and humus than sandy soils, have better drainage and infiltration of water and air than silt and clay-rich soils, and are easier to till than clay soils. The different types of loam soils each have slightly different characteristics, with some draining liquids more efficiently than others. The soil's texture, especially its ability to retain nutrients and water are crucial. Loam soil is suitable for growing most plant varieties.
The Miami series consists of moderately well drained soils formed in as much as 18 inches (46 cm) of loess or silty material and in the underlying loamy till on till plains. They are very deep soils that are moderately deep to dense till. Permeability is moderate or moderately slow in the solum, and slow or very slow in the underlying dense till. Slope ranges from 0 to 60%. Mean annual precipitation is 40 inches (1000 mm), and mean annual temperature is 52 °F (11 °C).
Loess is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of the Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water and soil in a body of water such as a river. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, like mudflows from landslides. Silt has a moderate specific area with a typically non-sticky, plastic feel. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and a slippery feel when wet. Silt can be visually observed with a hand lens, exhibiting a sparkly appearance. It also can be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth.
A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact. The constituents that compose granular material are large enough such that they are not subject to thermal motion fluctuations. Thus, the lower size limit for grains in granular material is about 1 μm. On the upper size limit, the physics of granular materials may be applied to ice floes where the individual grains are icebergs and to asteroid belts of the Solar System with individual grains being asteroids.
Miami soils are classified in USDA soil taxonomy as fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Hapludalfs. [2]
Soil classification deals with the systematic categorization of soils based on distinguishing characteristics as well as criteria that dictate choices in use.
USDA soil taxonomy (ST) developed by United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series. The classification was originally developed by Guy Donald Smith, former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil survey investigations.
