Ca-Mg ratios for evaluating pedogenesis in the piedmont province of the southeastern United States of America

2001 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
J N Shaw ◽  
L T West ◽  
B F Hajek

The nature of parent materials strongly influences soil development in the southeastern US Piedmont. In this region, most parent materials (saprolite) form from metamorphic and igneous felsic and mafic rocks. Although most soils in felsic terrains are acid and kaolinitic, soils formed from mafic parent materials range from kaolinitic Ultisols to Alfisols with smectite. Because it is sometimes difficult in soils developed in mixed terrains to determine parent material influence, exchangeable Ca/Mg ratios were used to elucidate soil-parent material relationships. Establishment of Ca/Mg signatures diagnostic of soil-parent material suites could facilitate soil mapping activities and forest fertilization regimes. Characterization data collected as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey (mainly Georgia and Alabama) were evaluated, and soils were grouped by parent material type. The Ca/Mg ratios did not prove to be diagnostic for separating parent materials; however, significant depth trends existed. In most of the groupings, Ca/Mg ratios decreased with depth in the solum, which was most likely due to selective retention of Ca2+ and the effects of bio-cycling. The ratio either increased below the solum (mafic soils), or continued to decrease (felsic soils). Thus, these ratios are useful for identifying solum depth in some of these soils. The (Ca + K)/Mg ratios were more diagnostic with regard to parent material. These data suggest soils possessing ratios of (Ca + K)/Mg < 2 within the solum (excluding surface horizons) have been significantly influenced by mafic parent materials. Key words: Piedmont, Ca-Mg ratios, Ultisols, Alfisols, pedogenesis

Author(s):  
Shane Robert Furze ◽  
Paul Arp

There is a growing demand for standardized, easily accessible and detailed information pertaining to soil and its variability across the landscape. Typically, this information is only available for select areas in the form of local or regional soil surveys reports which are difficult, and costly, to develop. Additionally, soil surveying protocols have changed with time, resulting in inconsistencies between surveys conducted over different periods. This article describes systematic procedures applied to generate an aspatial, terminologically- and unit-consistent, database for forest soils from county-based soil survey reports for the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The procedures involved (i) amalgamating data from individual soil surveys following a hierarchical framework, (ii) summarizing and grouping soil information by soil associations, (iii) assigning correct soil associates to each association, with each soil associate distinguished by drainage classification, (iv) assigning pedologically-correct horizon sequences, as identified in the original soil surveys, to each soil associate, (v) assigning horizon descriptors and measured soil properties to each horizon, as outlined by the Canadian System of Soil Classification, and (vi) harmonizing units of measurement for individual soil properties. Identification and summarization of all soil associations (and corresponding soil associates) was completed with reference to the principal soil-forming factors, namely soil parent material, topographic surface expressions, soil drainage, and dominant vegetation type(s). This procedure, utilizing 17 soil surveys, resulted in an amalgamated database containing 106 soil associations, 243 soil associates, and 522 soil horizon sequences summarizing the variability of forest soil conditions across New Brunswick.


Clay Minerals ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Wilson ◽  
D. C. Bain ◽  
D. M. L. Duthie

AbstractThe soils of Scotland are relatively young, being developed mainly on glacial drift deposited some 10 000 years ago. Only a small number of genetic soil types are represented, but this is more than compensated for by the wide variety of parent materials from which the drift ultimately derives. The major parent materials include granite and granitic gneiss, gabbro, basalt/andesite, mica-schist and related metamorphic rock types, Lower Palaeozoic greywackes and shales, Old Red Sandstone sediments, Carboniferous sediments, fluvioglacial sands and gravels, and estuarine silts and clays. The clay mineralogy of the soil associations developed on these parent materials is described and the origin of the clay minerals is interpreted. It is concluded that the influence of inheritance is predominant, but that the effects of pre-glacial weathering and Holocene pedogenesis can also be discerned. Inheritance has contributed a wide variety of clay minerals to the soils, including illite, kaolinite, chlorite, smectite and a number of interstratified minerals, pre-glacial weathering has resulted in the widespread formation of kaolinite and halloysite, irrespective of soil parent material or drainage class, and recent pedogenesis has brought about the transformation of inherited layer silicates by vermiculitization processes, with concomitant interlayer alumination, particularly in surface horizons.


Soil Research ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Trakoonyingcharoen ◽  
I. Kheoruenromne ◽  
A. Suddhiprakarn ◽  
R.J. Gilkes

Tropical soils developed from various parent materials and under various rainfalls were analysed to identify whether these environmental factors influence the properties of the iron oxides. Iron contents of the soils range from 5 to 134 g/kg, with hematite and goethite being the major secondary iron minerals. Hematite is the dominant iron oxide in all soils developed on limestone irrespective of rainfall, whereas for other parent materials the relative abundance of goethite tends to increase with rainfall. Aluminum substitution in goethite and hematite ranges from 13 to 21 mol% and 7 to 15 mol%, respectively. The mole% Al substitution in hematite is about half the level for goethite in the same soil. Crystal size estimated from X-ray diffraction line broadening ranges from 12 to 47 nm for goethite and from 15 to 44 nm for hematite. Similar sizes were obtained by electron microscopy. The properties of the iron oxides did not vary systematically with parent material or rainfall and are similar to those described by other workers for red tropical soils on diverse parent materials.


1994 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. de Jong ◽  
D. F. Acton ◽  
L. M. Kozak

Mineral composition of the parent material is a major factor controlling natural radioactivity of soils. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the natural radioactivity of 18 till and six lacustrine parent materials and their properties measured during soil surveys. Gamma spectroscopy was used to estimate 40K and daughters of 238U and 232Th; neutron activation analysis was used to determine total U; and alpha counting was used to measure 222Rn release from the soil. The amounts of the various radioisotopes were positively correlated with each other and with clay content; the correlation with sand content was negative; and the correlations with silt and inorganic C content were generally not significant. Adding the fine/total clay ratio as a further independent variable considerably improved the correlation between 40K and clay content. The data suggested considerable disequilibrium in the 238U decay chain, which appeared to be in part related to the mode of deposition of the parent materials. Soil survey information — in particular, texture — thus appears a readily available tool for preliminary screening of terrestrial radiation in Saskatchewan. Key words: Radioactivity, 40K, uranium, thorium, radon, texture


1973 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. DUMANSKI ◽  
J. C. WRIGHT ◽  
J. D. LINDSAY

Effective land use and land management policies are based ideally on data collected from land classification and land evaluation procedures. This paper describes a method employed in classifying and evaluating land for the production of lodge-pole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) in the Hinton–Edson area of Alberta. Initially, a soil survey was conducted in the area. Productivity of various collections of soils was then obtained by statistically comparing soil information derived from the soils map with forest growth information obtained from the continuous forest inventory program of North Western Pulp and Power Limited of Hinton. Results indicate that aspect has minimal effect on pine productivity except for sandy and gravelly soils. General differences in growth were related to soil parent material, climate, drainage, and physiography, and more specific differences were attributed to soil subgroup, soil series, soil reaction, and percent slope. It was realized that pine growth is a function of pedological, landform, and climatological factors, and all must be considered when evaluating productivity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-270
Author(s):  
Gerson Moreira BARROS ◽  
Jean Cheyson Barros dos SANTOS ◽  
Valdomiro Severino de SOUZA JÚNIOR ◽  
Elaine Almeida DELARMELINDA ◽  
José Coelho de ARAÚJO FILHO ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The expansion of the agricultural frontier into different geological environments in the west of the state of Pará, northern Brazil, makes it necessary to know the influence of the parent material on local soil attributes. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different parent materials on five soil profiles along a lithosequence exposed by the BR-163 highway, which runs from north to south through western Pará. The soils were classified, morphologically described and their main horizons sampled for physical, mineralogical and chemical analyses, including the determination of micronutrients, forms of phosphorus and secondary forms of iron. Multivariate analysis was used to group the different soil-parent material associations. The results demonstrated that the diversity of the parent material was a determinant of soil attributes, and was a conditioning factor for the formation of different clay minerals. Multivariate analysis grouped the soils along the lithosequence into a group formed by profiles derived from basic and intermediate igneous rocks, and a second group consisting of profiles derived from sediments and sedimentary rocks. The profile derived from acidic igneous rock showed greater similarity with the profiles derived from sedimentary materials in comparison to those derived from other igneous rocks.


1984 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. MERMUT ◽  
K. GHEBRE-EGZIABHIER ◽  
R. J. St. ARNAUD

Detailed mineralogy and chemistry of the clay fraction of five glacio-lacustrine deposits and of one Cretaceous marine shale (Ashville) were studied. Fine clay separates (< 0.2 μm) of the five parent materials were predominantly smectite with an average chemical composition:[Formula: see text]X-ray diffraction, dehydration, infrared, and chemical analyses, and the Greene-Kelly test showed that the smectite was an iron rich montmorillonite. Similarities in the crystal structure of the five soil parent material clays suggest that they were likely transported from the same source. Despite the differences in percentage of clay minerals, similarities between chemical composition of the coarse and the fine clays is interpreted as an indication of close diagenetic relationships between the predominant smectite and soil mica. High silicate bound iron may have caused a distortion in the crystal lattice and a slightly favorable weathering condition of smectites. However, presence of high exchangeable and soluble magnesium in the soil complex is likely retarding the smectite alteration. Thus, weathering by elemental substitution may have been restricted to the smectite end member only. Key words: Swelling clay soils, iron montmorillonite, chemical composition of smectites, dehydration of smectites


Author(s):  
Yiwei Zhao ◽  
Liangmin Gao ◽  
Fugeng Zha ◽  
Xiaoqing Chen ◽  
Xiaofang Zhou ◽  
...  

AbstractDue to the special sensitivity of typical ecologically fragile areas, a series of human life, mining, and other activities have a greater impact on the environment. In this study, three coal mines in Ordos City on the Loess Plateau were selected as the study area, and the pollution levels of heavy metals in the area were studied by measuring As, Hg, Cr, Cd, Cu, Ni, and Pb in the soil of 131 sampling points. Combined with the concept of “co-occurrence network” in biology, the level of heavy metals in soil was studied using geostatistics and remote sensing databases. The results showed that the concentrations of Hg, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Pb in more than half of the sampling points were higher than the local environmental background value, but did not exceed the risk control value specified by China, indicating that human factors have a greater influence, while Cd and As elements are mainly affected Soil parent material and human factors influence. Heavy metal elements have nothing to do with clay and silt but have an obvious correlation with gravel. Cd, Pb, As and Ni, Cd, Cr are all positively correlated, and different heavy metals are in space The distribution also reflects the autocorrelation, mainly concentrated in the northeast of the TS mining area and the middle of the PS mining area.


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