Soil-stratigraphic techniques in the study of soil and landform evolution across the Southern Alps, New Zealand

The Southern Alps lie along the convergent Pacific-Indian plate boundary. Geomorphically distinct eastern, axial and western regions reflect the east-west gradient in tectonic uplift (1 to 10 mm a⁻¹) and precipitation (600 to 10,000 mm a⁻¹). The eastern region is divided into front-ange and basin-and-range subregions. Soil-sequence studies on terraces established temporal contrasts in pedogenesis within and between eastern and western regions encompassing Entisols, Inceptisols and Spodosols. On Late Pleistocene and early Holocene terraces Dystrochrepts are persistent soils in the eastern region and Aquods in the western region. These soil sequences are used in the interpretation of relative soil age, stratigraphy and erosion history in hill and mountain drainage basins of the eastern and western regions. In the subhumid to humid eastern front-range subregion, simple soil forms occur as catenary sequences, and there is little evidence of erosion following the destruction of forests in the last millenium. Mollisols are dominant in the subhumid, and Dystrochrepts in humid areas, respectively. Soil-debris mantle regoliths date from the early Holocene and are still developing on slopes. The soil pattern on mountain slopes in the humid, eastern basin-and-range subregion is a complex array of simple, eroded, composite and compound soils. This pattern has resulted from erosion following forest destruction within the last millenium. The oldest surface or buried forest soils are Dystrochrepts dating from the Late Pleistocene to early Holocene. Wind erosion of these low-fertility soils contributes to the loessial sediments in which younger soils have formed. In the western region, soil patterns and soil stratigraphy indicate continous instability with a complex pattern of highly leached, shallow Orthents and bedrock outcrops on slopes. The soils are eroded from slopes within 2 ka. These contrasts in soil development and erosion periodicity in the eastern and western regions of the Southern Alps parallel the east-west contrasts in erosion rates of ca. 1–10 mm a⁻¹.