GYPSISOL

one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Gypsisols are characterized by a subsurface layer of gypsum (a hydrated calcium sulfate) accumulated by the precipitation of calcium and sulfate from downward percolating waters in the soil profile. With intensive management, irrigated crops can be grown on these soils. Occupying about 0.7 percent of the continental land area on Earth, Gypsisols occur in the very arid regions of the world (North Africa, the Middle East), sometimes in association with Calcisols, as in Australia and the United States. In order to qualify as a Gypsisol, a soil may also have layers of accumulated clay or of calcium carbonate but not of soluble salts, and it may not show waterlogging or swelling-clay effects. Little soil horizon (layer) differentiation is present other than the gypsic layer (which may be hardened and compact), with gypsum crystallites forming pebbles, stones, or rosettes (the so-called desert rose, in which gypsum crystals cluster together as do the petals of a rose).