What are the characteristics of a gley soil?

Gley Soils are strongly affected by waterlogging and have been chemically reduced. They have light grey subsoils, usually with reddish brown or brown mottles. The grey colours usually extend to more than 100 cm depth. Waterlogging occurs in winter and spring, and some soils remain wet all year.

What is the soil texture triangle called?

Textural Triangle
Textural Triangle. The textural triangle describes the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay in various types of soils.

What soil type is gley?

hydric soil
A gley is a wetland soil (hydric soil) that, unless drained, is saturated with groundwater for long enough to develop a characteristic gleyic colour pattern.

What are gley soils good for?

With adequate drainage, Gley soils can be used for field or vegetable cropping, or for high-producing pasture. This profile shows the typical characteristics of a Gley soil, where the entire subsoil appears to be affected by a seasonally high water table.

How is gley formed?

The organisms left in the soil extract the oxygen they need to survive from the iron compounds and the soil gradually turns grey, blue or green as the oxygen is depleted. If only the surface is badly drained, mainly in spring melt water areas, the soil is called a surface water gley.

What does a soil triangle measure?

The soil textural triangle is used to determine soil type based on sand, silt and clay percentages.

Where are gley soils found in Ireland?

North Kerry, Clare and Kilkenny are rich in clay; in Leitrim the drumlins are built of glacial clay till. Movement of water is slow here and leads to waterlogged soil often called gley soil. There is high clay content in this type of soil.

What is humic gley soil?

8.7 Humic gley soils are loamy or clayey, with a humose or peaty topsoil; they also occupy low- lying sites or depressions and are intermediate between cambic and argillic clay soils and peats.