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Gley soil in soil science is a type of hydric soil which exhibits a greenish-blue-grey soil color due to wetland conditions. On exposure to the air, gley colors are transformed to a mottled pattern of reddish, yellow or orange patches. During gley soil formation (a process known as Gleying), the oxygen supply in the soil profile is restricted due to soil moisture at saturation.
Gley soils may be sticky and hard to work, especially where the gleying is caused by surface water, held up on a slowly permeable layer. However, some ground-water gley soils have permeable lower horizons, including some sands, for example in hollows within sand dune systems, known as slacks, and in some alluvial situations.
Groundwater gley soils develop where drainage is poor because the water table is high, whilst A reducing environment exists in the saturated layers, which become mottled greyish-blue or brown because of the content of ferrous iron and organic matter. The presence of reddish or orange mottles indicates localised re-oxidation of ferrous salts in the soil matrix, and is often associated with root channels, animal burrows or cracking of the soil material during dry spells. |
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