Evaluation of the Ability of Hydric Soil Practitioners to Estimate the Quantity of Soil Organic Carbon.

Accurately estimating the quantity of soil organic carbon is critical to the application of indicators to identify a hydric soil in the field.  In most cases the estimation only needs to be accurate enough to distinguish among organic soil materials, mucky mineral materials, and mineral materials. In many hydric soils, however, sequential surface and near surface horizons often contain all three of these materials over a short distance. Thus, a common question in the field is how well can hydric soil practitioners identify organic soil materials, from mucky mineral materials, from mineral materials. In this study, we tested the ability of hydric soil experts to correctly identify these three classes of soil materials. In addition, after initial testing we provided training and guidance to participants to identify each class, and the following day retested participants. Twenty participants from the Mid-Atlantic and New England Hydric Soil Technical Committees were tested, offered training and guidance, and retested.  This presentation will discuss the results of the study and the implications for identifying hydric soils.