estimatePSCS: Estimate boundaries of the particle size control section (U.S Soil Taxonomy; 12th edition)

Description

Estimates the upper and lower boundary of the particle size control section by applying a programmatic version of the particle size control section key from the Keys to Soil Taxonomy (12th edition).

Requires information to identify argillic horizons (clay contents, horizon designations) with getArgillicBounds() as well as the presence of plow layers and surface organic soil material. Any getArgillicBounds() arguments may be passed to estimatePSCS.

Requires information on taxonomic order (to handle andisols).

WARNING: Soils in arenic or grossarenic subgroups, with fragipans, or with strongly contrasting PSCs may not be classified correctly. The author would welcome a dataset to develop this functionality for.

Usage

estimatePSCS(p, attr = "clay", hzdesgn = "hzname", tax_order_field = "tax_order",
bottom.pattern = "Cr|R|Cd", ...)

Arguments

A single-profile SoilProfileCollection object

attr

Name of the horizon attribute containing clay contents. Default 'clay'

hzdesgn

Name of the horizon attribute containing the horizon designation. Default 'hzname'

tax_order_field

Name of the site attribute containing taxonomic order; for handling PSCS rules for Andisols in lieu of lab data. May be NA or column missing altogether, in which case Andisol PSC possibility is ignored.

bottom.pattern

Regular expression pattern to match a root-restrictive contact. Default matches Cr, R or Cd. This argument is passed to both estimateSoilDepth and getArgillicBounds.

...

additional arguments are passed to getArgillicBounds()

Value

A numeric vector containing the top and bottom depth of the particle size control section. First value is top, second value is bottom.

References

Soil Survey Staff. 2014. Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 12th ed. USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC.

Examples

Run this code

# NOT RUN {
data(sp1, package = 'aqp')
depths(sp1) <- id ~ top + bottom
site(sp1) <- ~ group

p <- sp1[1]
attr <- 'prop' # clay contents 
foo <- estimatePSCS(p, hzdesgn='name', attr = attr)
foo
# }