Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station Contributions to Soil Survey (1902–1995)

Abstract

The Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station has been a major contributor to the Soil Survey of Illinois since 1902. Initial activities included mapping soil types by county, conducting soils investigation and genesis studies, collaborating in the development of soil science, promoting the use of soil survey information, and developing soil productivity indexes. Later, the Experiment Station provided laboratory soil characterization data for county soil surveys and computerized all of the laboratory soil property data for Illinois pedons including many long-term studies relating soil properties to soil parent material. Mineralogists established that most soil clay in Illinois was crystalline with montmorillonite predominant in Peoria loess and illite in Wisconsinan glacial till. Mineralogists used the presence of significantly more biogenetic opal to identify soils formed under long periods of grass rather than trees. In recent years the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station: conducted research on reclamation of agricultural soils disturbed by surface mining, quantified soil loss from erosion, studied the effects of erosion on soil properties and crop yields, evaluated methods to maintain or restore productivity on previously eroded soils, and studied the effects of accelerated erosion on the taxonomic placement of Illinois soils. Most of the research was conducted to address classification and interpretational needs of the soil survey.