Topsoil for Dummies

Soil Horizons

In the pantheon of contributors to the late, unlamented eHow.com (now niched in half a dozen or more websites) there were many who decided that once they had displayed their expertise on a topic (and we use the word expertise quite loosely), they had qualified to write on any related topic. Such is the case of business graduate and wannabe JD Kyle Lanning, who inflicted his personal brand of scientific illiteracy on eHow.com's "What Is the Difference Between Topsoil & Subsoil & Bedrock?"

Lanning's been here before, and that time it was to "explain" the genesis of clay soil;
along the way babbling incoherently about science-y stuff like diagenesis and cohesion. He's back (in all honesty, we don't know which of the two came first), this time babbling incoherently about soil horizons and pedogenesis, although he studiously avoids the word "pedogenesis." Probably couldn't spell it...

Much of what Kyle says in his post can be traced back to factual material, although Lanning's anti-plagiarism rewording process introduces a lot of factual "slop." Take, for instance, the notion that,

"Making soil is a biological process accomplished by several different microorganisms. Bacteria, fungi and other organisms decompose living matter and eventually turn it back into soil. From there, temperature, along with pressure and weathering, shapes the remains of previous living beings into what we call soil." We find it amusing that Kyle modified "many" to "several" in that first sentence, not to mention the rather childish notion that soil is only decomposed organic matter. In fact, topsoil is relatively enriched in organic matter, and that is what differentiates topsoil from subsoil. And that rubbish about "temperature, along with pressure"? That's the process of lithification, or rock formation. Pedogenesis is, in essence, the destruction of rock.

Lanning clearly found some useful references – more useful than his post – but manages to botch the reword process too many times to be dependable. Some of his other odd constructions?

• "Subsoil is also much lighter in color and much harder to handle than topsoil..." – What does "harder to handle" mean?
• "...as [humus] decays into topsoil, it creates a nutrient-rich blend of soil..." – Actually, we think humus mixes into topsoil, not decays into it. Earthworms, roots, and burrowing animals help this mixing.

• "Topsoil depth varies from a few inches to several feet depending on geological processes." – Not really: it depends on the bedrock composition, the climate, and the topographic relief, among other variables.
• "One advantage that subsoil has over topsoil is that it contains few if any weed seeds because of its depth, therefore increasing its attractiveness to growers and companies that make topsoil."
• "[Subsoil is] much looser than the hardened layer of bedrock lying beneath it" – "Looser"? An interesting choice of words, not to mention that his phrasing suggests that bedrock forms from subsoil rather than the other way around.

Based on his botched rewording of his primary sources, it's obvious that Kyle was totally unfamiliar with his topic and merely dashed off the minimum number of words necessary to collect his stipend from Demand Media. Well, his sloppy job also collected him a second Dumbass of the Day award. So there.

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