A Quantitative Comparison of Soil Development in Four Climatic Regimes

1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer W. Harden ◽  
Emily M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Field Data ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Quantitative Comparison ◽  
Development Index ◽  
Climatic Regions ◽  
Moisture Regimes ◽  
Soil Age ◽  
Susquehanna Valley ◽  
Different Climates

A new quantitative Soil Development Index based on field data has been applied to chronosequences formed under different climatic regimes. The four soil chronosequences, developed primarily on sandy deposits, have some numeric age control and are located in xeric-inland (Merced, Calif.), xeric-coastal (Ventura, Calif.), aridic (Las Cruces, N. Mex.), and udic (Susquehanna Valley, Pa.) soil-moisture regimes. To quantify field properties, points are assigned for developmental increases in soil properties in comparison to the parent material. Currently ten soil-field properties are quantified and normalized for each horizon in a given chronosequence, including two new properties for carbonate-rich soils in addition to the eight properties previously defined. When individual properties or the combined indexes are plotted as a function of numeric age, rates of soil development can be compared in different climates. The results demonstrate that (1) the Soil Development Index can be applied to very different soil types, (2) many field properties develop systematically in different climatic regimes, (3) certain properties appear to have similar rates of development in different climates, and (4) the Profile Index that combines different field properties increases significantly with age and appears to develop at similar rates in different climates. The Soil Development Index can serve as a preliminary guide to soil age where other age control is lacking and can be used to correlate deposits of different geographical and climatic regions.

scholarly journals Soil Development in Quaternary Glacial Deposits, Waterton Park Area, Southwestern Alberta

2007 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric T. Karlstrom
Keyword(s):  
Material Properties ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Soil Age ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Park Area ◽  
Geomorphic Units ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Diagnostic Properties

ABSTRACTPedological investigations in the Waterton Park area provide a useful means of testing subdivisions of Quaternary glacial deposits based on geomorphic relations. Soils in the region, however, including Podzols, Brunisols, Luvisols, and Chernozemics, also reflect the influence of soil forming factors other than time. Nonetheless, a chronosequence can be established by comparing time-diagnostic properties of soils on different geomorphic units in areas with similar climate, vegetation, slope and parent material. Properties thought to be most diagnostic of relative soil age include thickness and degree of clay buildup in B horizons and two soil development indices which average degree of development of a number of properties. Pédologie and geomorphic data suggest surface deposits include mountain tills of three or four separate advances and continental tills of two separate advances. Mountain tills are tentatively correlated with the Late Wisconsinan (about 18 ka BP), Late and or Early Wisconsinan (about 100 to 65 ka BP). Late lllinoian (about 200 to 132 ka BP). and Early lllinoian and/or pre-lllinoian (about 400 to 700+ ka BP), whereas continental tills are tentatively correlated with the Late Wisconsinan and Late lllinoian deposits of the U.S. Midcontinent.

Distinguishing soil age and parent material effects on an Ultisol of north-central Wisconsin, USA

Geoderma ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 61 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 165-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Mason ◽  
C.J. Milfred ◽  
E.A. Nater
Keyword(s):  
Parent Material ◽  
North Central ◽  
Soil Age

scholarly journals Phosphorus dynamics during early soil development in extreme environment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzana Frkova ◽  
Chiara Pistocchi ◽  
Yuliya Vystavna ◽  
Katerina Capkova ◽  
Jiri Dolezal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Isotopic Composition ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Available P ◽  
Extreme Condition ◽  
Organic P ◽  
Soil P ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
P Pools ◽  
Microbial P

Abstract. At the early stages of pedogenesis, the dynamics of phosphorus (P) in soils are controlled by microbial communities, the physicochemical properties of the soil and the environmental conditions. While various microorganisms involved in carrying out biogeochemical processes have been identified, little is known about the actual contribution of microbial processes, such as organic P hydrolysis and microbial P turnover, to P cycling. We thus focused on processes driven by microbes and how they affect the size and cycling of organic and inorganic soil P pools along a soil chronosequence in the Chamser Kangri glacier forefield (Western Himalayas). The rapid retreat of the glacier allowed us to study the early stages of soil formation under cold arid climate. Biological P transformations were studied with the help of the isotopic composition of oxygen (O) in phosphate (δ18OP) coupled to sequential P fractionation performed on soil samples from four sites of different age spanning 0 to 100–150 years. The mineral P, i.e. 1M HCl-extractable P, represented still 95 % of the total P stock after approximately 100 years of soil development. Its isotopic composition was similar to the parent material also at the most developed site. Primary phosphate minerals, therefore, mostly composed this pool. The δ18OP of the available P and the P bound to Fe and Al oxides instead differed from that of the parent material, suggesting that these pools underwent biological turnover. The isotopic composition of O in of the available P was mostly controlled by the microbial P, suggesting fast exchanges occurred between these two pools possibly fostered by repeated freezing-thawing and drying-rewetting cycles. The release of P from organic P become increasingly important with soil age, constituting one third of the P flux to available P at the oldest site. Accordingly, the lighter isotopic composition of the P bound to Fe and Al oxides at the oldest site indicated that this pool contained phosphate released by organic P mineralization. Compared to previous studies on early pedogenesis under alpine or cold climate, our findings suggest a much slower decrease of the P-bearing primary minerals during the first 100 years of soil development under extreme condition. However, they provide evidence that, by driving short-term P dynamics, microbes play an important role in controlling the redistribution of primary P into inorganic and organic soil P pools.

Soil Development Parameters in the Absence of a Chronosequence in a Glaciated Basin of the White Mountains, California-Nevada

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry W. Swanson ◽  
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk ◽  
Randel J. Southard
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
White Mountains ◽  
Soil Age ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractDetailed mapping and provisional numerical age determinations of glacial deposits in the South Chiatovich Creek Basin of the White Mountains provide an opportunity to evaluate the ability of conventional soil parameters to discriminate first- and second-order glacial events. Sampling and analytical procedures were designed to minimize variation in climate and lithology. When lithology and climate are similar among sites, age trends are more pronounced in both field and chemical soil properties. Profile development indices (PDIs), adjusted by removing melanization and pH, systematically increase with greater soil age, and discriminate first-order, but not second-order, glacial events. The best-fit curve for adjusted PDI data assumes an exponential form and suggests that the rate of soil formation in this region decreases over time, similar to the rate of weathering-rind development. Variation in eolian influx and surface erosion, which are dominant processes affecting soils of the basin, cause major uncertainties in establishing soil age and, hence, soil-development rates. Even on the youngest glacial deposits, soil age is probably significantly less than deposit age due to these geomorphic processes. Soil and weathering parameters imply that these field techniques can be inexpensively employed to define relative chronologies and to assess surface degradation and its impact on surface exposure ages. Results from this study indicate that site-selection strategy for establishing glacial chronologies should be reevaluated. Working with stable residual bedrock surfaces and associated low-relief outwash fans and terraces may prove more productive than focusing on relatively unstable moraine surfaces in tectonically active mountain systems.

scholarly journals With Regard to the Chromic Luvisols in Romania

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Anca-Luiza Stănilă
Keyword(s):  
Iron Hydroxide ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
Colour Intensity ◽  
Prolonged Drought ◽  
Hydration State ◽  
Structured Soil ◽  
Current Area ◽  
Soil Climate ◽  
Different Climates

There are many written reports concerning the formation and the distribution of chromic luvisols of Romania. In many cases it cases it has been apreciated the fact that their presence would due to some specific condition, the stress being focused on the Mediterranean nuance of climate.Newer pedological studies show that these soils have a distribution area more restrained.           In fact they appear within some narrow interfluves or marginal stripes of some well drained interfluves formed at their surface of loess or loess-like deposits.A major role in their formation is that soil climate expressed by a definitive hydrical regime, probably an alternotranspercolative one.The colour intensity seems to be influenced both by the hydration state of iron and of iron content of parent material. Iron hydroxide suffers a rapid dehydration under prolonged drought condition of soil; they turn into rusty sesquioxides of goethite type, hydrohematite type, inducing to the soil the reddish brown colour.In a more recent work N. Florea and M. Cicotti (1976) stated that chromic luvisols should not be regarded as a zona structured soil formed in the current area, but as a largely inherited, developed under different climates.

The Nivolet CZ Ecosystem Observatory reveals rapid soil development in recently deglaciated alpine environments: Biotic weathering is the likely culprit

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Baneschi ◽  
Ashlee Dere ◽  
Emma Aronson ◽  
Ramona Balint ◽  
Sharon Billings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Critical Zone ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Organic C ◽  
C Storage ◽  
Topographic Positions ◽  
Alpine Environments

<p>Soils are a critical component of the Earth system in regulating many ecological processes that provide fundamental ecosystem services (Adhikari and Hartemink, 2016). Soil formation factors may be operating at faster timescales than is typically considered in recently deglaciated alpine environments, yielding important implications for critical zone services (e.g., water retention, the preservation of carbon (C) and nutrients, and chemical weathering fluxes). It remains unclear how variation in these properties are linked to soil development and soil organic C pools and fluxes, in part because sites varying in these characteristics also typically vary in vegetation and climate.</p><p>Here we leveraged the high-altitude alpine pastures of the Nivolet Critical Zone and Ecosystem Observatory, Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy) to examine biotic and abiotic dynamics and controlling factors of organic C and weathering under different topographic positions and geologic substrates in a small localized mountainous region. Soil profiles were sampled across a range of parent materials deposited after the Last Glacial Maximum, including gneiss glacial till, carbonate and calcschist/gneiss colluvium, and gneiss/carbonate/calcschist alluvium across ridgetop, midslope and footslope topographic positions. Organic C, C stable isotopes, major and trace element content, particle size distribution, and pH reveal how parent material and landscape position govern soil C storage and development. Even under the cold climate, limited season with liquid water, young-age deglaciated context, soils have developed incipient spodic horizons and calcschist clasts appears completely weathered in place.</p><p>Alkali and alkaline earth elements exhibit chemical depletion throughout the profiles, whereas in some profiles phosphorus concentrations reflects nutrient uplift processes (i.e., accumulating at the top of the profile and depleted in mid-horizons) likely driven by “biotic” cycling. Phosphorus is relatively high in uppermost horizons at carbonate and glacial sites, but is quite low in gneiss, even though TOC is relatively high, suggesting that plants underlain by gneiss are able to generate organic compounds with lower P availability. Though rooting depth distributions exhibit linear declines with depth, contrary the typically observed exponential decay behavior, our data suggest that roots serve as important biotic weathering agents prompting rapid soil development. All profiles have high organic carbon content at the surface, but</p><p>are twice as high in the footslope Gneiss profile as in the midslope Glacier and Carbonate profiles and in the floodplain Alluvial profile.</p><p>These data, in conjunction with microbial analysis and geochemical variation, suggest that biota are key agents promoting the observed high degree of soil development in these high altitude ecosystems. We demonstrate how in the early stages of soil development abiotic and biotic factors influence soil weathering and C storage across different parent material and topography.</p><p> </p><p>Adhikari, K. and Hartemink, A. E.: Linking soils to ecosystem services – A global review, Geoderma, 262, 101–111, 2016</p>

Soils of the Plio-Pleistocene: do they distinguish types of interglacial?

1988 ◽  
Vol 318 (1191) ◽  
pp. 539-557 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Soil Features ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Climatic Characteristics ◽  
Mathematical Relations ◽  
Approximate Rate

Soils form on land surfaces by the actions of physical, chemical and biological processes on the lithosphere, and are influenced by climate, parent material, relief, organisms and duration of formation. Remnants of Plio-Pleistocene soils may be buried beneath younger deposits or persist on present land surfaces. Their potential for rigorously differentiating interglacials by climatic characteristics is limited by problems of: (i) precise dating of the beginning and end of soil-forming periods; (ii) distinguishing characteristics attributable to climatic factors from those related to parent material, relief, etc; (iii) calculating mathematical relations between measurable soil features and climatic variables; (iv) diagenetic changes in buried soils; (v) recognition and dating of relict features in unburied soils; (vi) loss of many soils by erosion. Some of these problems may be overcome if sequences of buried soils in periglacial loess deposits are used to compare the climates of successive interglacials in Europe and Asia. With the use of the length of interglacials derived from the oceanic record, the interglacials of the past million years are ranked according to approximate rate of soil development in loess. Two provisional equations relating soil development to time and climate are used; a linear relation probably overestimates the effect of time, and a logarithmic one seems to underestimate it. I tentatively suggest that oceanic oxygen-isotope stage 5e was warmer and wetter than the Holocene, stages 7 and 9 were cooler and drier than 5e, and 13-23 were generally warmer and wetter than 1-11.

INORGANIC PHOSPHORUS FORMS IN SOME ALBERTA SOILS AS RELATED TO SOIL DEVELOPMENT, PARENT MATERIAL AND AVAILABLE PHOSPHORUS

1968 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. Alexander ◽  
J. A. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Inorganic Phosphorus ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Available P ◽  
Available Phosphorus ◽  
Inorganic P ◽  
Podzolic Soils ◽  
Phosphorus Forms ◽  
P Content ◽  
Close Relationship

Inorganic P forms in 18 profiles representing five great groups of Alberta soils were determined by the modified Chang and Jackson procedure. Ca-P is dominant in the Chernozemic Brown and Black soils and in the C horizons containing CaCO3, while Fe-P and Al-P or Occl-P are the main forms in the Podzolic soils. Three series high in available P contain appreciable amounts of Al-P and Fe-P in their surface horizons. The organic P content is relatively high in the soils exhibiting the least pedogenic development.With increasing degree of soil development, Fe-P and Occl-P tend to increase. However, parent materials have a marked influence on the distribution of inorganic P forms and a close relationship between soil development and distribution of inorganic P forms does not appear to exist in these soils. The Al-P and Fe-P forms seem to be the major sources of available P in the soils studied.

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