Fundamental Changes in Soil Taxonomy: Future Perspectives from Three Developers of the Illustrated Guide to Soil Taxonomy.

Soil Taxonomy was developed in the 1950’s by a number of individuals and groups called “Soil Survey Staff.” Seven preliminary drafts were circulated in the 1960’s. The first and second editions of Soil Taxonomy were published in 1975 and 1999, respectively. A series of 12 updates have been published from 1975 – 2014 as Keys to Soil Taxonomy. Because of the increased complexity of Soil Taxonomy and the difficulty in teaching soil classification to students using Keys to Soil Taxonomy, a workgroup was formed in 2011 that developed a web-based Simplified Guide to Soil Taxonomy (SG) that has simplified classification keys to the great group level. The first draft also included many illustrations, photos, and hyperlinks. It was posted on the web for review and testing in 2013. Our objectives are to (1) present an overview of the development of the SG and (2) discuss the future of Soil Taxonomy based on our experiences as developers of the SG. The views presented are our own and preliminary and do not necessarily represent the thoughts of the entire workgroup. Since the first SG draft has been posted, it has been tested by practicing soil scientists and teachers and students of beginning soil science, pedology, and soil judging courses. Comments and suggestions can be submitted at an NRCS website. A second draft will be published following additional input received at regional soil survey work planning conferences in summer 2014. The SG is intended to be a short-term fix to the complexity problem associated with Soil Taxonomy. Our experience suggests that a more comprehensive revision of Soil Taxonomy is also needed that (1) is based on soil properties that affect behavior of soils, (2) contains shorter definitions and simplified terminology, (3) includes keys that have inclusive, not exclusive, classification criteria, and (4) has unifying concepts with a universal soil classification system. Since new or revised classification system provide the basis for making soils maps used by the National Cooperative Soil Survey, they must preserve the soil series concept. However, we feel that major changes are needed to procedures used to distinguish soil series.