Second Edition
partially based upon the
“Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description” by Bullock, P., Fedoroff, N., Jongerius, A., Stoops, G., Tursina, T. and Babel, U.
Copyright © 2021 Soil Science Society of America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copublication by © American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Crop Science Society of America, Inc., and Soil Science Society of America, Inc. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to reuse material from this title is available at http://wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Georges Stoops to be identified as the editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty
While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy of completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties or merchantability of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The publisher is not providing legal, medical, or other professional services. Any reference herein to any specific commercial products, procedures, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favored status by the ASA, CSSA and SSSA. The views and opinions of the author(s) expressed in this publication do not necessarily state or reflect those of ASA, CSSA and SSSA, and they shall not be used to advertise or endorse any product.
Editorial Correspondence:
American Society of Agronomy, Inc.
Crop Science Society of America, Inc.
Soil Science Society of America, Inc.
5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711‐58011, USA
agronomy.org
crops.org
soils.org
Registered Offices:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products, visit us at www.wiley.com.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Stoops, Georges, author.
Title: Guidelines for analysis and description of soil and regolith thin sections /
Georges Stoops, University of Ghent (Belgium), Faculty of Sciences,
Department of Geology, Research Unit Mineralogy and Petrography.
Other titles: Guidelines for analysis and description of soil and regolith
thin sections
Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐ACSESS, [2021] | Series:
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA books | Revised edition of: Guidelines for analysis
and description of soil and regolith thin sections. Georges Stoops,
Michael J. Vepraskas. 2003. | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020030573 | ISBN 9780891189756 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Soil micromorphology. | Regolith.
Classification: LCC S593.2 .S76 2021 | DDC 631.4/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020030573
doi:10.2136/guidelinesforanalysis2
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Georges Stoops
To my wife Marthe for her patience during the many hours, days, weeks of writing, and for her continuous moral support. As a souvenir to the many “holidays” in the mountains and seaside during which piece by piece, year by year most of these notes were prepared.
Since its publication, fifteen years ago, the “Guidelines for Analysis and Description of Soil and Regolith Thin Sections” are internationally considered as a standard for micromorphological studies, as a follow‐up of the famous “Handbook for Thin Section Description”, developed by the International Working Group on Soil Micromorphology of the International Society of Soil Science (Bullock et al., 1985). As the first edition is out of print since a few years, and second‐hand copies only available at exaggerated prices, that students surely cannot afford, I took the initiative to prepare a second, updated version.
Since the publication of the first edition, much progress was made in the interpretation of micromorphological features, especially in the fields of archaeology and paleopedology. However, new publications on methods, theoretical concepts and terminology are very rare. The study of many papers applying the concepts of the Guidelines, and especially by refereeing many manuscripts, learned me which concepts and definitions were not clear or insufficiently explained. Also the discussion with students during several intensive courses on micromorphology helped me to discover what had to be remediated.
In this second edition, the text is updated, not only with new references, but also with some older that were overlooked before. Some chapters are rearranged, part of the appendixes integrated as tables in the corresponding chapters, other deleted. A new appendix, containing the translation of 220 terms in 19 languages is added.
I want to extend my thanks for useful comments and suggesting to several colleagues, especially Dr. D. Itkin (Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev), Dr. Vera Marcelino (Ghent University, Belgium) and Dr. Florias Mees (Africamuseum and Ghent University, Belgium), and for the interesting comments of many referees, especially of Dr. M. Gerasimova (Moscow Lomonosov University), Dr. R. Heck (University of Guelph), Dr. F. Khormali (Gorgan University of Agriculture and Natural Resources), Dr. P. Kühn (University of Tübingen), Dr. V. Marcelino (Ghent University), Dr. H. Morrás (University of Buenos Aires), Dr. R. Poch (University of Lleida), L. Trombino (University of Milano), E. Van Ranst (Ghent University), Dr. M. Vepraskas (North Carolina State University), Dr. E. Verrecchia (University of Lausanne), and anonymous referees.
My gratitude goes also to Prof. Dr. J. De Grave, head of the Research Unit Mineralogy and Petrology of the Department of Geology of the Ghent University (Belgovium) for giving me the opportunity to make use of the infrastructure and thin section collections.
GEORGES STOOPS
While preparing the texts and illustrations, the author has often recalled all the individuals which have contributed in one way or another over many years to the final production of this book through their works, discussions, support, or advise.
My thanks go in the first place to the members of the former “Working Group on Soil Micromorphology”, who regularly assisted at the meetings, and soon became dear friends. The long, sometimes seemingly endless discussions we had on concepts and their formulation were an excellent school where I learned the value of clear, unambiguously expressed ideas and where I became aware that cultural diversity, as small as it might seem within Western Europe, can lead to completely different approaches of scientific subjects, particularly when abstract ideas are involved. Discussions by Dr. H.J. Altemüller and the late Dr. A. Jongerius contributed much to the understanding of the micromorphological concepts needed, but every member of the Working Group had input, not only in a scientific way, but also in a human one. To say it with the words of the popular German singer Reinhard Mey: “Denn eigentlich ging keiner fort: in einer Geste, einem Wort, in irgend einer Redensart lebt Ihr in meiner Gegenwart” (Then in fact none [of my former friends] left. They all live close to me, in a gesture, a word, an expression).
I also want to acknowledge the contributions of numerous students to which I have taught micromorphology over the last 30 years, at the International Training Centre for Post‐Graduate Soil Scientists, University of Gent, or as a visiting professor in Europe and overseas. Their remarks and questions helped me a lot to rephrase, reshape and complete definitions, subdivisions and comments. Looking to the Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description with the eyes of the student was very instructive, although, as a co‐author, not always a very satisfactory experience.
Many individuals have contributed to the final result of this book. Mentioning every contribution would be impossible. Among those that sent in the past opinions on the Handbook I want to acknowledge especially Dr. H. Morras (INTA, Argentina) for his detailed and well‐considered comments. Several colleagues improved the manuscript of the “Key to the ISSS Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description”, which forms an essential part of this manual, determining the way in which several concepts were modified and interrelated. Amongst them I want to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. J. Arocena (UBC, Canada) and Dr. A. Ringrose‐Voase (CSIRO, Australia). A great help to me were the comments of Dr. L. Drees (Texas A&M University, USA) on the first manuscript of this book, both with respect to the content and the redaction. Thanks go also to the members of the Editorial Committee who reviewed the manuscript. I really appreciate their comments and corrections. Following scientists were involved: Prof. A. Busacca (Washington State University), Dr. L. Drees (Texas A&M University), Prof. Dr. P. Goldberg (Boston University), Prof. Dr. R.W. Griffin (Prairie View A & M University, Texas), Dr. A. Jongmans (Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands), Prof. Dr. D.L. Lindbo (North Carolina State University), Dr. W.D. Nettleton (USDA), Dr. F.E. Rhoton (USDA), Prof. Dr. H. Stolt (University of Rhode Island), Prof. Dr. L.T. West (The University of Georgia), Prof. Dr. L.P. Wilding (Texas A & M University) and Dr. M. Wilson (USDA).
Special thanks go to Dr. F. Mees (University of Gent, Belgium) for his comments on the first draft and his digitizing all the micrographs shown in the CD. Final formatting of the CD was done by Matthew Vepraskas (Virgin Tech. University) and Matthew Kirk (North Carolina State University). Thanks also to Mrs. Martine Bogaert (University of Gent, Belgium) for making the drawings.
Many colleagues kindly and spontaneously helped me with providing advises, information and illustrations. Not being able to thank everybody who gave some help, I want to mention especially following persons: Dr. F. Runge (Paderborn, Germany) and L. Vrijdaghs (Tervuren, Belgium) (phytoliths), Dr. J. Delvigne (Marseille, France) (weathering).
Although the collection of thin sections of the Laboratory for Mineralogy, Petrology and Micropedology of the Ghent University (Belgium) is very rich, some specific examples were missing, or not sufficiently didactic. The author is indebted to several friends and colleagues that send micrographs, especially Dr. J. van de Meer (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) (Micrographs 4.22 and 7.28), Dr. B. Van Vliet‐Lanoë (University of Lille, France) (Micrographs 3.27 and 3.28), or gave the opportunity to make micrographs of their thin sections: Dr. J. Aguilar (University of Granada, Spain), Dr. C. Ampe and Dr. V. Marcelino (Ghent University, Belgium), Dr. P Kühn (Greifswald, Germany), Dr. R. Poch (University of Lleida, Spain), Dr. L. Trombino (University of Milano, Italy).
Thanks go also to Dr. C.V. Waine, publisher of the Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description for the permission to reproduce several figures.
Last, but not least, many thanks go to Dr. M. J. Vepraskas (North Carolina State University, USA), who urged me to write this book and who started and continued the timeconsuming and sometimes difficult administrative publishing procedures, including the editing. Without his help and continuous support this work would not have been realized.
GEORGES STOOPS
BLF | blue‐light fluorescence microscopy |
CL | cathodoluminescence microscopy |
CPL | circular polarized light |
CT | X‐ray computerized tomography |
EDS | energy‐dispersive spectroscopy |
FTIR | Fourier‐transformed infrared spectroscopy |
OIL | oblique incident light |
PPL | plane‐polarized light |
SEM | scanning electron microscopy |
TDFI | transmitted dark field illumination |
TEM | transmission electron microscopy |
UVF | ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy |
WDS | wavelength‐dispersive spectroscopy |
XPL | cross‐polarized light |
XPL | cross‐polarized light and 1‐retardation plate (gypsum compensator) inserted |
Precise descriptions of the features seen in soils or regoliths as examined under the microscope require a specific set of concepts and terms because the microscope reveals features that simply cannot be seen with the naked eye. Microscopic features can of course be described using common words, but this would lead to very tedious and lengthy descriptive texts that are time consuming both to write and to read and not always unambiguous. Moreover, it would be difficult to translate such descriptions without losing information or committing errors. By using a comprehensive terminology, descriptions would be not only shorter, but also easier to compare and to store in databases.
Terminology is in the first place a means of communication and, in the second place, a means of education‐ people more easily recognize objects, features, or situations for which they know a name. Features or combinations of features without a name are often not consciously observed! For instance, Inuits have many words for snow, while speakers of English have only one and can barely differentiate between wet and dry snow. Eunologues can distinguish and name many types of wines, based on the variety of grapes, fermentation and storing, whereas people not acquainted with this terminology can merely recognize red, white, and rosé wines.
To put an end to the proliferation of overlapping or contradictory concepts and terms in micromorphological publications, an international working group was created in 1969, under the auspices of the International Society of Soil Sciences, to establish a simple, comprehensive terminology for the description of soil thin sections. The result of this work was published in the Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description by P. Bullock, N. Fedoroff, A. Jongerius, G. Stoops, T. Tursina and U. Babel in 1985 (hereafter referred to as the Handbook). The book was highly appreciated by the micromorphological community, as it helped solve several problems of description inherent to the then existing systems. It became widely used, both for scientific research and as a teaching aid.
Since the early 1990s the Handbook had been out of print, but the original publisher was not interested in the publication of a second edition. Because of the demand for a new edition and to have the opportunity to amend several errors, contradictions and inconsistencies in the original text, I agreed to prepare a new revised text. The Guidelines for Analysis and Description of Soil and Regolith Thin Sections (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) appeared in 2003. The text of this book was essentially based on the Handbook (Bullock et al., 1985), and on the author's own series of lecture notes and his experience in research and teaching at the International Training Centre for Post‐Graduate Soil Scientists (Ghent University, Belgium) and during several intensive courses on micropedology in Europe and abroad. For some definitions and concepts, different approaches by other soil micromorphologists, which were discussed by Bullock et al. (1985), were not repeated in the Guidelines. Decisions then made, were adopted without arguments or references. In several places, however, definitions and schemes were discussed in more detail, as experience has shown that students are often puzzled why specific decisions were made.
Not all concepts of the Handbook were as user‐friendly as intended by its authors. Especially in those cases where the distinction between features was partly based on common experience of the authors, some concepts were left unclear (Stoops and Tursina, 1992). Stoops (1998) suggested, therefore, the introduction of a key, which would probably not enhance the scientific level of the system much but would surely contribute to the use of unambiguous concepts and to a higher reproducibility of the descriptions, making it easier to store them in a database.
Almost 15 yr after its publication in 2003 the Guidelines was out of print, and a second, updated edition was urgently needed, as the system of concepts and terms became internationally the standard for micromorphological studies. In this second edition some concepts, giving rise to misunderstanding, are clarified and references to literature updated and extended. Almost no new ideas on description or concepts and terms were published in the last two decades. The concepts of the Guidelines were meanwhile also explained in two manuals: Loaiza et al., (2015) and Simões de Castro and Cooper (2019).
In the 1960s and the 1970s, micromorphology was often related to soil classification and/or related genetic studies. Since that time, application has gone beyond the bounds of traditional soil science as other disciplines discovered the utility of micromorphology. Other frequent users of micromorphology include: Quaternary geologists (e.g., Catt, 1989; Kemp, 1999; Cremaschi et al., 2018), sedimentologists (e.g., Zimmerle, 1991; van der Meer and Menzies, 2011; Menzies and van der Meer, 2018), weathering specialists (e.g., Nahon, 1991; Tardy, 1993; Delvigne, 1998), and especially archaeologists (e.g., Courty et al., 1989; Macphail et al., 1990; Davidson et al., 1992; Goldberg and Macphail, 2006; Macphail, 2008, 2014; Nicosia and Stoops, 2017; Goldberg and Aldeias, 2018; Macphail and Goldberg, 2018).
The objective of this book is to provide a system of analysis and description of soil and regolith materials as seen in thin sections. It is not intended as a manual of micropedology; topics such as sampling, thin section preparation, and interpretation of thin sections are therefore not discussed. Also, no attempt has been made to present proposals for higher levels of classification of microfabrics, as no sufficient agreement exists in the international micromorphological community on how to handle this problem.
In the past, many authors mixed the terminologies of Bullock et al. (1985) with those of Brewer (1964a and 1976), Brewer and Pawluk (1975) and others, without realizing the differences (e.g., differences in basic concepts) and especially without being aware of the false interpretations that might result. It is indeed scientifically incorrect to use a mixture of concepts and terms of different systems, which are not compatible. Is there any soil scientist that would accept a classification proposal for a soil profile, expressed in a mixture of U.S. Soil Taxonomy and WRB criteria and terms? Experience has shown that such a mixture of terms is dangerous and often leads to false statements.
To avoid confusion, some micromorphological concepts, definitions, and terms used by other systems are set off in separate explanatory paragraphs “Background”, as complementary information to the reader, but not as a suggestion for its use as part of the proposed terminology. Where appropriate, concepts and terms are compared with those of other authors, without going into detail. The reader is referred to the original papers, or to Stoops and Eswaran (1986) or Jongerius and Rutherford (1979) for additional information. A complete glossary of existing micromorphological terms is beyond the scope of this textbook.
Terminology and/or classification reflect the state of the art in a given field of science and can therefore only be an approximation. The author is aware that this book is only a next approximation to a completer and more rational micropedological terminology.