Soils
Welcome to the Ohio NRCS Soils Program
The Natural Resources Conservation Service conducts soil surveys and provides technical assistance to private landowners.
Soil Products
Soils data for Ohio are found at the Web Soil Survey and the Soil Data Mart. From Web Soil Survey you can view soils maps, make thematic maps, run reports and view Soil Survey manuscripts (where available). For additional assistance and a brief overview, follow Get Started using Web Soil Survey. On the Soil Data Mart you can download soils data or view and print reports. Soil Surveys on CD and SSURGO Data Viewer CD’s are also available. Historical replica CD's are available for some counties. Soil Data Viewer may be used with ArcGIS software to run tables and make thematic maps. Soils and other GIS layers may also be found at the Geospatial Data Gateway.
Soil Regions
Because soil affects and is affected by other elements in the environment, it is not surprising that boundaries between the 12 soil regions correspond to boundaries between other natural and cultural regions. USDA recognizes 24 distinct Land Resource Regions in the country based on land use, elevation and topography, climate, water, soils, and potential natural vegetation. Ohio is part of four Land Resource Regions that extend from Maine to northern Alabama and as far west as eastern Nebraska.
State Soil
Miamian is the State Soil of Ohio. Miamian soils are the most extensive soils in Ohio and occur on more than 750,000 acres in the State. They are a productive soil with corn, soybeans, and winter wheat the primary crops. Soils in the the Miamian series consists of very deep, well drained soils which is high in lime content. Miamian soils typically have a very dark grayish brown to brown silt loam or loam topsoil layer ("A horizon") 5 to 10 inches thick. They commonly have a brown or yellowish brown subsoil layer ("B horizon"), 8 to 35 inches thick, with a higher clay content than the A horizon. Below the subsoil, soils in the Miamian series have a brown to light olive brown substratum ("C horizon") that is slightly or moderately alkaline and has a lower clay content than the B horizon.
Soil Health
Soil health is defined as how well soil does what we want it to do. Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. More farmers are managing for soil health by disturbing their soil as little as possible, growing as many different species of plants as practical, keeping living plants in the soil as often as possible, and keeping the soil covered constantly.
So what do you know about soil? Get more soil health information from NRCS soils specialists. Visit the following links for an overview of basic soil quality concepts, a soil quality glossary, and the online Soil Biology Primer. The sites also feature content focused on the role and benefits of soil organic matter, soil quality indicators and assessment, and soil quality management for major land uses. To learn more about Soil Health and Sustainability, Cover Crops and Crop Diversity, and Grazing Lands and Livestock Nutrition check out these videos.
Additional Soil Resources
Additional Soils Documents
(These documents require Adobe Acrobat)
