User:Paleorthid/Archive 3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Soil science is ...
A natural science. Often referred to as an earth science, some also insist on placing it among the life sciences, saying that a soil without living processes is simply another construction material for engineers to work with.
To be soil, a natural body must contain living matter. This excludes former soils now buried below the effects of organisms. This is not to say that buried soils may not be characterized by reference to taxonomic classes. It merely means that they are not now members of the collection of natural bodies called soil; they are buried paleosols.
from: Soil Survey Manual - Chapter One: Soil and Soil Survey Modern Concept of Soil USDA SoilSurvey Staff, 1993
Fairly regularly I find myself addressing the incorrect placement of soil science as a sub-discipline of geology or agronomy. I have also addressed the incorrect placement of soil survey and soil classification as a sub-discipline of geomorphology. These corrections are needed to maintain a NPOV, consistent with the International Council for Science which has accepted the International Union of Soil Sciences IUSS, as member, rather than placing soil science under either the IUGS or IUBS. I fully understand that semantic/turf wars along these lines are inevitable. Maintaining soils curricula sufficient for an academic degree in soil science seems to be a perennial challenge for academic institutions. Soil Science departments get eliminated and their introductory courses folded into agricultural, biological, horticultural, environmental, engineering, planning, geography or geology departments. Further confusion results when non-soil scientists refer to them selves as soil scientists based on a specialization within their fields. The parallel is when people mistakenly refer to me as a geologist based on my working knowledge of the field.
It is understandable for folks to see soil science as branch of whatever department introduced them to the discipline. And it is understandable for non-soil scientist folks with a better understanding of soil science to be mislabeled as soil scientists despite their best efforts.
