Characteristics and formation of rain forest soils derived from late Quaternary basaltic rocks in Leyte,Philippines

This study was conducted to evaluate the physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics of rain forest soils derived from late Quaternary basaltic rocks in Leyte, Philippines. Four sites along a catena were selected at an elevation of 75–112 m above sea level with an average annual rainfall of 3,000 mm and an average temperature of 28°C. Results indicate that the soils are deep, clayey, and reddish in color, which is indicative of the advanced stage of soil development. They also posses excellent physical condition (friable and highly porous) although they are plastic and sticky when wet as is usual for clayey soils. In terms of chemical characteristics, the soils are acidic with low CEC values and generally low in organic matter and nutrient contents. The clay mineralogy of the soils is dominated by halloysite and kaolinite with minor amounts of goethite and hematite, and they also have generally high dithionite-extractable Fe contents confirming the advanced stage of their development. The soils in the more stable slope positions (PL-1, PL-2, and PL-4) have generally similar characteristics and appeared more developed than the one in the less stable position (PL-3). The most important pedogenic processes that formed the soils appear to be weathering, loss of bases and acidification, desilification, ferrugination, clay formation and translocation, and structure formation. The nature of the parent rock and climatic conditions prevailing in the area as well as slope position appear to have dominant effects on the development of the soils.