The soils of Culbin forest, Morayshire: their evolution and morphology, with reference to their forestry potential

A brief account of the environmental conditions within Culbin forest is provided as a background to tracing the evolution of the area since late Glacial time. Where possible, the events are placed in historical order and the development and morphological characteristics of the soils are discussed.With the exception of the humus podsols, which are developed on an old dune system, the soils lack profile development. However, since the establishment of a tree canopy, soil horizon development has been initiated and a weakly developed iron podsol has been extensively mapped. Otherwise, the soils are classified as regosols. with some low-lying soils assigned to a gleyic subgroup. The widespread occurrence of buried peat and alluvial horizons was noted during fieldwork, and mapping units that incorporate these important horizons have been separated.Investigation into the potential of each of the mapping units for forestry reveals that where buried horizons are present significant increases in yield class can be anticipated: elsewhere nitrogen and general nutrient deficiency have seriously affected tree growth, which is only mediocre in performance. However, recent work has shown that a dramatic increase in yield class can be brought about with the application of fertilizer.     

The relevance of humus forms for land degradation in Mediterranean mountainous areas

In the Gavarras (NE Spain), a large number of plots on respective schists, leucogranite and granodiorite was studied for their soils and vegetation. Results were used to check conclusions from earlier studies of Mediterranean forest soils (mostly shallow Regosols and Cambisols) on such acidic to intermediate rocks. They confirmed that the humus form depends on catenary position and lithology, and that aggregate stability and infiltration characteristics of the upper mineral soil horizon relate to humus form type. Aggregate stability of the topsoil was found to be relatively high in mor and mull type humus forms, but differences with moder type humus forms were not statistically significant. Differences in aggregate stability are attributed to the presence of stable humus–clay–iron complexes in mulls and to high fungal activity and organic matter content of mors. Low infiltration rates were only encountered in topsoils with mor type humus form, in line with results from the earlier studies. In deeper soil horizons with low organic matter content, aggregate stability will be largely related to soil reaction and base saturation. On leucogranite and granodiorite, these were found to vary strongly, most probably largely due to local differences in fast acid neutralizing capacity (ANC_f). These local differences are primarily attributed to differences in the mineralogical composition and texture of the soil material, connected with differences in lithology and/or brought about by erosion, colluviation and soil formation. Consonant with earlier studies, it is concluded that the susceptibility of these forest soils to erosion largely depends on properties of the upper mineral soil horizon, which are controlled by or related with humus form development. General trends in the latter are clear and can be used to predict this susceptibility. In the case of land degradation, which implies a more severe erosion, deeper soil horizons are also involved. Spatial variability in properties of these horizons, relevant for degradation, is considerable and not clearly related to humus form development. Accordingly, the abovementioned trends in humus form development cannot be used to predict the susceptibility to land degradation.     

Geomorphological Holocene events as deduced from lithological records of the fluvial basins of Dauria

A conjugate analysis of the processes of morphogenesis and sedimentation within small fluvial basins of Dauria revealed a rhythmic character of change of the Holocene processes which are combined into cycles of a different hierarchical level. It is shown that each cycle begins with an extreme phase of intense fluvial drift and delivery of matter from the system. The fluvial horizons comprise the lower part of deposits of the Holocene macrocycle in the Vesnyanka pad’ (a valley without a permanent watercourse). A disastrous fluvial drift was recorded repeatedly for the period 7–8.5 cal. ka and at the transition time from the Atlantic to Subboreal time. A normal zonal phase of integration of matter within the basins is exhibited by buried humus horizons of soils which give clear evidence of 1800-year cycles. A regional development in Dauria is recorded for the soils with the age of about 8, 6.4 and 4.6 as well as 1.2–1.4 cal. ka. The upper part of the deposits of each cycle is characterized by aeolian horizons of extreme arid phases. The profiles of proluvial trails are indicative of 130-year cycles. Based on results from studying buried soils, data of pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of the deposits, we determined an enhancement in climate aridization for the last 10 ka and, in general, a decreased of the sedimentation and morphogenesis rate.     

Interaction between aggrading geomorphic surfaces and the formation of a late pleistocene paleosol in the palouse loess of eastern Washington state

Variable rates of loess deposition contributed to dramatic regional variation in a soil-stratigraphic unit, the Washtucna Soil, in the Palouse loess deposits in the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington state. Throughout most of the Channeled Scabland, the morphology of the Washtucna Soil is that of a single buried soil, but it bifurcates into two well-developed and pedologically distinct buried soils in areas immediately downwind of the major source of loessial sediment. Regional loess stratigraphy confirms that the two well-developed soils formed during the same interval of time during which only one soil formed in areas that are distal to loess source areas. The variable and perhaps rapid rates of soil formation suggested by the stratigraphy resulted from an interaction between variable rates of loess deposition and the formation of superimposed calcic soils. Petrocalcic horizons with weak Stage IV morphology formed as the zone of carbonate accumulation moved up into former A and cambic horizons that had been profusely burrowed by cicadas. The development of cicada burrows in one phase of soil development that were subsequently engulfed by pedogenic carbonate under a rising land surface seems to have greatly accelerated the development of the petrocalcic horizons. Accelerated rates of formation of the petrocalcic horizons occurred when extrinsic (pulses of loess deposition) and intrinsic (engulfment of burrowed horizons) thresholds were exceeded. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the soil formation that accompanied the rise in the land surface due to additional loess deposition may have occurred during the late Wisconsin glaciation when giant glacial outburst floods in the channeled Scabland triggered a new cycle of loess deposition.     

试论伏牛山南坡土壤垂直分异规律——兼论亚热带北界的划分

在野外土壤调查和室内土壤理化分析的基础上,开展了伏牛山南坡土壤组成和性质垂直分异、土壤类型划分以及亚热带北界问题的讨论。研究表明：(1) 调查断面上土壤表层HA/FA随高度增加而增大,且均小于1,海拔900 m左右土壤胡敏酸的芳构化程度最低;随高度增加土壤pH和盐基饱和度先下降后上升;海拔900 m以下的土壤中均有明显的黏化层,向上土壤黏粒淋溶淀积逐渐减弱;海拔900 m以下的土壤土体风化程度高,大部分氧化物的平均迁移系数和土体淋溶率小于1,土体Saf小于5.06,淀积层游离铁含量大于20 g·kg-1,铁游离度大于40%,具有弱富铁铝作用,剖面中出现明显的铁锰新生体,而向上土体风化程度减弱,不发生富铁铝作用,剖面中不出现铁锰新生体。(2) 伏牛山南坡海拔550 m以下出现黏磐黄褐土 (饱和黏磐湿润淋溶土),550~950 m出现普通黄棕壤 (普通铁质湿润淋溶土),950~1900 m出现棕壤 (普通简育湿润淋溶土或暗沃简育湿润雏形土),1900 m以上出现暗棕壤性土或草甸暗棕壤 (暗沃冷凉湿润雏形土)。(3) 伏牛山南坡亚热带北界约在海拔950 m。     

Use of soil horizons for assessing soil degradation and reconstructing chronology of degradation processes: the case of Mwisanga Catchment, Kondoa, central Tanzania

This paper analyses the use of soil horizons for mapping soil degradation intensity and reconstructing chronology of degradation processes. Through “Pedogenetic Baseline Approach”, the catchment was classified into two categories: the erosional and depositional zones. The eroded soils were reconstructed even in those areas where there had been total soil stripping. Profiles of the undegraded soil provided a reference mark (particularly the argillic B horizon of Lixisols). One specific criterion for determining the degree of soil degradation of a given map unit in the erosional zone was based on whether A or B horizons or both had been eroded. Another criterion for classifying the units in the depositional zone was based on relating the quality of the buried soil with the overlying young soil developed from the colluvium/alluvium. Hence, the study underscores the importance of being able to reconstruct soil properties of pre-eroded soil profiles with the view to determining erosion units. This will eventually help in developing appropriate land use and conservation strategies.     

东北黑土区土壤剖面地温和水分变化规律

东北黑土区土壤侵蚀的结果使土壤在坡面上发生再分配,土壤腐殖质层厚度的空间变异增大。腐殖质层厚度的变化又引起地温和土壤水分等土壤物理性质的变化,地温和水分是影响和反映冻融侵蚀作用的重要因子,也是影响地表和土壤剖面物质运移的重要因素。本文通过实测不同厚度腐殖质层剖面的地温和土壤水分,分析了地温和水分随时间和土壤剖面深度的变化规律。结果显示腐殖质层厚度对土壤温度和含水量有显著影响,腐殖质层较厚的剖面解冻速度比薄层黑土区要慢,不同深度土层温度到达0℃的日期也不相同,腐殖质层较厚的剖面冻结时间要滞后1周左右。同时,腐殖质层较厚的黑土区土壤含水量明显大于薄层黑土区,土壤水分运移的深度范围也大。     

TREND SURFACE ANALYSIS OF GLACIALLY BURIED PLEISTOCENE ORGANIC DEPOSITS IN CENTRAL MICHIGAN*

Trend surfaces were determined and compared for the bedrock surface, two characteristics of the present topography, and 42 water well log reports of glacially buried carbonaceous horizons within drift from an area in central Michigan. Data almost certainly indicate that the glacially buried Pleistocene organic deposits represent two or more pre-Woodfordian paleosurfaces. Trend surface analysis of buried organic horizons may be useful for recognizing paleosurfaces and separating drift sheets in other areas with limited subsurface data.     

Properties of a 5500-year-old flood-plain in the Loup River Basin, Nebraska

Flood-plain aggradation within the Loup River Basin of central Nebraska was episodic and alternated with incision throughout much of the Holocene. A widespread episode of flood-plain stability, however, occurred about 5700–5100 cal. year BP. The purpose of this paper is to describe the properties of this buried flood-plain at six sites in the basin, to consider why the properties of the buried flood-plain vary from site to site, and to evaluate possible reasons why the Loup River flood-plains stabilized 5500 years ago. Episodic valley-bottom aggradation was common during flood-plain formation at five of the six sites. The radiocarbon ages, particle-size data, and organic-carbon data for the buried flood-plain reveal that valley-bottom aggradation generally slowed between about 5700 and 5100 cal. year BP. Erratic down-profile changes in percentages of sand, clay, and organic matter indicate flood-plain sedimentation and soil formation were often episodic. Sand and clay rarely show a steady fining-upward trend. Organic matter fluctuates with depth; at some sites multiple, incipient A horizons were buried during waning valley-bottom aggradation. At two localities, the buried flood-plain is evident as a clay-rich stratum that must have been deposited in a paleochannel. Flood-plain stabilization between 5700 and 5100 cal. year BP probably occurred in response to the effects of external climate forcing on vegetation and hydrologic changes. Flood-plains of other rivers in the central Great Plains also stabilized at this time, further supporting a climatic explanation for slowing of valley aggradation and formation of a flood-plain at this time. Recognition of buried flood-plains is important to both soil mapping in valleys and to the discovery of cultural resources in valleys.     

闽江河口秋茄湿地土壤腐殖质组成及剖面分布特征

以闽江河口秋茄湿地土壤为研究对象,研究了土壤腐殖质组成和剖面分布特征,并探讨了土壤腐殖质组成与土壤理化因子的关系。结果表明,秋茄湿地土壤腐殖质的组成中,胡敏酸占有机碳变化范围为6%～18%,富里酸占有机碳变化范围为15%～34%,闽江河口秋茄湿地土壤为富里酸型土壤。土壤胡敏酸和胡敏素含量随深度增加而波动降低;富里酸表层的含量最低,中间层最高。表层的HA/FA最高,中间层最低。土壤理化性质中,pH值、有机碳含量、粘粒含量、氮含量与土壤腐殖质分布有显著线性相关关系。     

Soils and landscape evolution of eolian plains: the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico

Sheets of eolian sediment cover many areas of the earth's surface, sand seas, dune fields, and loess sheets being the best known examples of such features. Less well known are deposits of sandy, eolian sediment forming extensive plains. An excellent example of such a region is the semi-arid Southern High Plains (northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico). The level landscape of the area was created by deposition of multiple, extensive (≈ 80,000 km²) sheets of eolian sediment (Blackwater Draw Formation) over the past 1.4+ Ma. This deposit grades from sandy (southwest) to silty and clayey (northeast) and is up to 27 m thick. Surface soils (at least 30,000 and possibly 120,000 years old) are well developed (5YR hues, agrillic horizons, 1–2m thick with prismatic structure, Stage II–III calcic horizons) and are generally Paleustolls and Paleustalfs, with some Paleargids and Haplargids. Morphologic variation is due mainly to textural variation of the eolian parent material, although locally thickness of the parent material and wind erosion and cumulization are important factors, and locally slight variation in effective precipitation may be significant. The Blackwater Draw Formation contains as many as six well-developed buried soils, each formed in individual layers of eolian sediment, similar to or more strongly expressed (2.5YR hues, higher illuvial clay content) than the regional surface soils. The presence of the buried soils indicates that sedimentation was episodic and separated by long periods of relative landscape stability. Eolian processes also appear to have been important during the periods of stability and pedoenesis by providing clayey, calcareous dust that was added to the soil, promoting formation of the argillic and calcic horizons. The sedimentologic and pedologic uniformity of the deposit suggests that the regional environment has not varied significantly during the Quaternary except for periods of increased sedimentation or wind deflation. Underlying the Blackwater Draw Formation is an Upper Tertiary deposit (up to 36 m thick) of eolian sand, silt, and clay (Ogallala Formation). This deposit contains buried soils very similar to those in the Blackwater Draw Formation, suggesting that the geomorphic processes that created the Quaternary landscape of the Southern High Plains began to operate in the late Tertiary, perhaps as much as 11 million years ago.     

我国水平地带性土壤中有机质的空间变化特征

主要根据全国第二次土壤普查的成果，对我国水平地带性土壤中有机质的含量和胡敏酸与富里酸比值的空间变化特征进行了概括，进而探讨了在不同自然和人因素影响下，土壤有机质的累积状况与稳定性特征。     

Carbon fluxes in soil: long-term sequestration in deeper soil horizons

Terrestrial ecosystems represent the second largest carbon reservoir, and the C balance in terrestrial ecosystems can be directly impacted by human activities such as agricultural management practices and land-use changes. This paper focuses on the C-sequestration in soil. Although many studies showed that the concentration of SOC is much higher in the shallow soils (0-30 cm), the deeper horizons represent a much greater mass of soil and represent a huge C-storage pool. The process of preferential retention of more strongly adsorbing components, along with competitive displacement of weakly binding components are the key processes that enhance the movement of organic carbon to deeper soil horizons. DOC represents the most dynamic part of organic carbon in soils, and thus can be used as a timely indicator of the short-term change of C-sequestration. Long-term experiments have demonstrated that higher SOC levels in shallow soils would lead to increased fluxes of DOC to deeper horizons, but more data on a wider range of soils and treatment strategies are needed to fully evaluate the linkages between changes in SOC in shallow soil, vertical fluxes of DOC to deeper soil horizons, and enhanced C-inventories in deeper, slow-turnover SOC pools.     

土壤碳通量--深土层的长期吸收

1IntroductionEarth'satmosphereisbeingsignificantlyalteredbyhumanactivities.Fossilfueluseandland-usechangesaredrivingtheongoing,rapidriseinatmosphericCO2andotherso-calledgreenhousegases.Concernsaboutthepotentialeffectsonregionalandglobalclimatemotivatethis…     

The Landscape of Diversity in U.S. Higher Education Geography

Palynological analyses were completed for the A and B horizons of a forested Mollic Hapludalf to determine type, amount, and distribution of pollen and spores within the soil solum. Hypotheses regarding the origin of pollen and the mechanisms of its movement within soil bodies are also advanced. Pollen downwash within the mineral soil seems to be very slow and confined to the uppermost porous and most homogenized part of the solum. The predominance of non-arboreal pollen at depth was believed to be a result of deposition with the loess parent material. High arboreal pollen frequencies in the upper horizons coupled with increases in non-arboreal types at depth indicate gradual ongoing mixing from the present vegetation into the soil.     

成都平原水耕人为土诊断层的微形态特征与土壤基层分类

对成都平原地区广泛分布的水耕人为土中，就同一亚类的几种典型土系，对其诊断层的土壤微形态特征进行研究，提出了划分不同土系及其所属土壤的土壤属性如：土壤颗粒、土壤矿物、土壤结构、土壤形成物等的特征的微形态证据。研究表明：土壤诊断层的微形态特征能够综合地、直观地、准确地反映土壤这些分类属性，同时还能提供土壤生产性方面的信息。所以本研究结果在土壤系统分类的基层分类以及应用于生产上，都有重要的理论和实践意义。     

试从土壤腐殖质组成和性质论伏牛山南侧亚热带北界的划分

本文首先综述前人对伏牛山南侧热带北界划分的研究成果，并指出了产生分歧的原因。然后作者通过对伏牛山中段南坡不同海拔高度七个土壤剖面的野外调查和室内土壤腐殖质组成和性质的分析，选择各剖面点的海拔高度、有机碳、胡敏酸（HA）、富有酸（FA）、胡富比（HA／FA）、E4、E6、E4／E6等指标，运用聚类分析等方法，探讨了伏牛山南侧亚热带北界的划分。研究结果表明，该界线大约在拔1000m左右。     

中国东北沙地埋藏土壤的成因和环境指示意义

本文对我国东北沙地沙丘埋藏土壤的形成原因重新进行了探讨。新的观察和证据表明,中晚全新世沙丘埋藏土壤的形成主要是过去人类活动等非气候因子导致附近沙丘活化或沙漠化所引起的,气候变化所起的作用可能比原来认为的小得多;中晚全新世的埋藏土壤及其风沙层序列因而不能被用来指示过去气候变化,但可以被用来重建过去人类活动与沙地环境相互作用历史。     

SOIL DEVELOPMENT AND SPATIAL VARIABILITY ON GEOMORPHIC SURFACES OF DIFFERENT AGE

Twenty-four soil pedons on each of four sandy lake terraces in northwestern lower Michigan that ranged in age from 3000 to 11,000 years BP were studied to assess trends in soil morphological variability with time. After verifying the general uniformity of parent materials within and between the four surfaces, we examined temporal trends in the spatial variability of soil color, cementation, horizon thickness and development. E horizons attained high color values (lightness) by 3000 years and changed little after that time, whereas B horizons continued to get darker with time. Cementation within B horizons increased in strength and amount with time, as did B horizon thickness. Soils ≥4000 years old had deeper eluvial zones but much greater variabilities in the thickness of that zone than did younger soils. Soil development increased with time, but spatial variability in degree of development also increased with time. These patterns are best explained by invoking spatially random soil mixing upon a surface that is otherwise undergoing podzolization. [Key words: podzolization, chronofunction, Michigan, soil variability, soil genesis.]