Classification and comparison of in situ and anthropogenic soil profiles using Soil taxonomy, proposed amendments to Soil taxonomy, and the Unified Soil Classification System in Knox County, Tennessee

The study and mapping of anthropogenic soils has received little attention in past soils surveys in the state of Tennessee. Two in situ soil profiles and two anthropogenic soils profiles developed from the in situ soils were investigated in Knox County, Tennessee and their classifications compared using Soil Taxonomy, proposed amendments to Soil Taxonomy, the proposed Spolents soil suborder, and the Unified Soil Classification System. A simple two-tailed test of means was used to determine if significant differences were observed in soil lab characterization properties from the in situ soil to the anthropogenic soil. Using Soil Taxonomy, the Southwood Commercial Park soils classified as a fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic, Typic Hapludult for the in situ soil and as a fine, mixed, semiactive, acid, thermic, Typic Udorthent for the anthropogenic soil while the Turkey Creek Commercial Development soils classified as a fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic, Ultic Hapludalf and a fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, nonacid, thermic, Haplic Udarent for the in situ and anthropogenic soil respectively. Classifying the anthropogenic soils using the proposed amendments to Soil Taxonomy resulted the Southwood site classifying as a fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic, Spolic Udorthent and no change in the classification of the Turkey Creek site from the classification using Soil Taxonomy. Using the proposed Spolents amendment to Soil Taxonomy resulted in the Southwood anthropogenic profile classifying as a fine, mixed, semiactive, thermic, Matric Udispolent and the Turkey Creek anthropogenic profile as a fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic, Fissile Udispolent. The dominant sand fraction present for each profile was used to determine like parent materials for the in situ versus the anthropogenic profiles for each site. A two-tailed test of means with alpha = 0.05 revealed no significant change in soil laboratory characterization properties from the in situ soils to the anthropogenic soils.