THE GENESIS OF SOME BASALTIC SOILS IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Field and laboratory investigations of 182 soil samples and their underlying basalts in the Inverell area indicated that not all of the red soils in the area are relicts of Tertiary laterization as was previously thought. The soils on basalt were divided morphologically and mineralogically into shallow (black, brown/ chocolate, and red) and deep (krasnozems and lateritic soils) profiles. The mineralogy of the sand fractions of the shallow soils, which were similar in all respects except colour and location, suggests that they are young soils as the heavy minerals in the sand fractions are dominantly pyroxene, olivine, and the black opaque minerals which weather quite rapidly. The shallow black and brown/chocolate soils occupy whole slopes under grassland vegetation or grassland with trees, while the shallow red soils are restricted to steeper well-drained slopes and crests where trees tended to dominate grass. In similar areas throughout the New England region red soils are found on basalt in areas receiving 75 cm or less average annual rainfall, although previous workers have assumed that red soils develop from basalt at present only in areas receiving more than 140 cm average annual rainfall. The deeper soils, which were characterized by a lower pH, occupied upper or upper and middle slopes. The dominance of the resistant altered opaque minerals in these soils suggests that they are relict soils. The krasnozems showed little horizon differentiation apart from a slight darkening of the upper 8–10 cm. The lateritic soils had marked horizons, with laterite overlying mottled and pallid zones, the whole sequence being deeper than the krasnozems. The lateritic soils contained a high percentage of heavy minerals in the sand fractions in contrast to all the shallow profiles. Only one period of laterization is indicated in the area, although the laterite levels were not always accordant.     

红壤区土壤中镁肥肥效的研究

虽然早在一个世纪以前,就已经知道镁是植物正常生长所必需的养分之一,但道到本世纪三十年代才开始施用镁肥.最近,对镁的作用和镁肥施用间题.给予了较大的注意^p[1,2].这是由于镁在植物营养上的重要作用日益为人们所了解;以往认为是由病害所引起的一些症状,查明了往往是由镁素缺乏而引起;随着氮、磷、钾等化学肥料的大量施用,农作物产量增加,但由于没有相应地施用镁肥,加剧了土壤中镁素的缺乏.在某些国家,过去随钾肥可带入一些镁素,但后来由于肥料的精制提纯,这种无意的施用也停业了,因而作物缺镁症状增多.     

CHANGES IN THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF SOIL ORGANIC PHOSPHATE DURING PEDOGENESIS

In two chronosequences of soils, total organic phosphate (P₀) accumulated rapidly during the first 50 years of soil development, when organic matter increased and pH decreased. The rate of P₀ accumulation then declined with age of soil until a ‘steady state’ was reached. The amounts of phospholipid, inositol phosphates and humic acid—P₀ followed the same trends as the total P₀. Parent materials and very young soils contained largely citric acid-soluble P₀, but after less than 50 years, surface horizons accumulated sufficient organic matter to complex a considerable proportion of the P₀. An upper limit of 20–5 per cent citric acid-soluble P₀ and 70–80 per cent NaOH-soluble P₀ was attained within 50 years of soil formation in the surface layers, and this slowly extended down the profile so that, after 10000 years, the soil had 20 per cent citric acid soluble-P₀ and 70 per cent NaOH-soluble P₀ to a depth of 1 m.     

甘肃东部地区黑垆土的发育演化模式与发生学特性的时空差异

本文研究了甘肃东部(亦称陇东)黄土塬区黑垆土的发育演化模式及成土速率与成土作用强度的时空变异规律。提出黑垆土叠加剖面的形成依次经历了古土壤发育、新冰期黄土粉尘堆积覆盖、人类耕作堆肥熟化三个阶段。埋藏古土壤普遍形成于距今7500-3500年高温期的温湿草原环境中,南部粘化黑垆土带还存在距今约13800-7500年的古土壤发育阶段,但此时的成土速率比中全新世小。同一阶段的成土速率和成土作用的强度南部比北部大。在新冰期(距今约3000-2500年)中黄土粉尘的加速堆积,是古土壤层被掩埋以及形成覆盖层的直接原因。具有普遍性的人为耕作熟化是在全新世黄土覆盖层上进行的,黑垆土剖面中不可能普遍存在古耕层。     

不同时期形成的铁质富铝土特性及其在发生上的意义

本文在其他成土因素相对一致的前提下研究时间因素对土壤性状的影响,并以此为依据探讨分类中的一些问题.随成土时间变长(Q₄-Q₁),土壤的微形态特征,化学性质和粘土矿物组成都发生较大变化.如原生矿物含量减少;三水铝石逐渐增多;高岭石结晶程度变高;粘粒硅铝率和交换量分别由1.91、57.5减至1.25、12.9;游离铁含量增加.分析资料的统计结果表明:成土时间对土壤性状的影响一般小于生物气候的影响;全新世火山灰发育的土壤的粘土矿物、交换量、游离铁含量等性状与红壤截然不同,不应归属于红壤而应在高级分类单元中加以区分;许多在发生上有意义的指标,如硅铝率等,由时间因素引起的变化(Q₃-Q₁)已超过了同一母质发育的不同土类间的变化,因此把Q₃-Q₁玄武岩发育的高富铝土归属于同一土属也是不妥的.     

STONE PAVEMENTS IN SOILS OF CAERNARVONSHIRE, NORTH WALES

In Caernarvonshire, North Wales, some soil profiles contain a concentration of stones as a layer, a single stone thick, which separates lower horizons of glacial drift from upper colluvial horizons. These layers, stone pavements, are believed to have formed as lag deposits (erosion pavements) on eroded drift surfaces which were then covered by colluvium. The formation and burial of the pavements may be attributed to periglacial and solifluction processes in the Late Glacial period. Local preservation of stone pavements suggests more widespread distribution of soils in which horizon differentiation results in part from depositional rather than pedological processes.     

SOIL CORROSIVENESS IN SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE

The potential corrosiveness of four soil series was studied in south Oxfordshire by measuring soil properties (resistivity, pH, sulphate content, moisture content and redox potential) thought to be closely connected with ferrous metal corrosion. Fifty random points were located in areas of the soil series map units. Paired measurements of resistivity were made at each sampling point. Analysis of variance over all groups (soil map units) showed that, for all properties except redox potential, between group variance exceeded within group variance. The amount of variance contributed from within the pairs of resistivity measurements was small suggesting little short range variation in this property. There was good association between the properties measured and the soil map units. The kinds of soil identified and the delineations on the soil map therefore represents a useful partitioning of the areas studied in terms of corrosion risk.     

SOIL CLASSIFICATION IN THE SOIL SURVEY OF ENGLAND AND WALES

The development of soil classification as a basis for soil mapping in England and Wales is briefly reviewed, and a system for future use is described. The things classified are soil profiles, and classes are defined by relatively permanent characteristics that can be observed or measured in the field, or inferred within limits from field examination by comparison with analysed samples. Profile classes are defined at four categorical levels by progressive division, and are termed major groups, groups, subgroups, and soil series respectively. Classes in the three higher categories are defined partly by the composition of the soil material and partly by the presence or absence of particular diagnostic horizons, or evidence of recent alluvial origin, within specified depths. Soil series are distinguished by other characteristics, chiefly lithologic, not differentiating in higher categories. Most of the soil groups, regarded as the principal category above the soil series, are closely paralleled in other European systems, in the U.S.D.A. system (7th Approximation with subsequent amendments), or in both. Compared with the system used hitherto, the main innovations are the use of specific soil properties to define classes at all categorical levels, and the separation at group level of classes based primarily on inherited lithologic characteristics. The soil-profile classification provides a uniform basis for identifying soil map units, considered as classes of delineated soil bodies. When a map unit is identified by the name of a profile class, it is implied that most of the soil in each delineation conforms to that class, and that unconforming inclusions belong to one or more closely related classes or occupy an insignificant proportionate area. Map units identified by land attributes not differentiating in the profile classification are termed phases.     

A NEW HAND-HELD RECORDING PENETROMETER FOR SOIL STUDIES

This paper describes and evaluates a new solid-state recording hand-held cone penetrometer developed for in-situ soil studies. Force is measured by a strain-gauged transducer, and depth by an accurate optical system. Data for up to 20 penetrations per plot are stored and processed within the instrument in the field. The new penetrometer has been evaluated in field and soil tank experiments in comparison with three widely contrasting existing penetrometers ranging from a simple hand-held penetrometer to a trailer-mounted power-driven instrument. The results indicated that the simple hand-held penetrometer gave appreciably different cone resistance profiles from the other instruments. In particular, spurious ‘treatment effects’ obtained from the tillage experiment were shown to be due to inadequate instrument performance. The new solid-state recording hand-held penetrometer gave results comparable with those obtained from the more complex trailer-mounted instrument and another hand-held recording penetrometer.     

CLAY MINERALS IN SOILS DERIVED FROM LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE TILL: EFFECTS OF INHERITANCE AND PEDOGENESIS

The clay mineralogy of thirty-two profiles located mainly in the Vale of Strathmore and developed on glacial till derived from Lower Red Sandstone sediments and lavas has been investigated by X-ray diffraction. The soils were selected so that the parent material was related predominantly to one of the rock types common in the Lower Old Red Sandstone succession—namely, marl, sandstone, lava, or conglomerate. Comparison of the < 1.4μm fractions separated from fresh rock samples with those separated from the C horizons of the soils clearly established the dominant influence of parent rock on the soil-clay mineralogy. The clay minerals inherited by the soil often include unusual trioctahedral expansible minerals such as saponite, interstratified vermiculite-chlorite, and smectite-vermiculite, as well as more common types like mica, montmorillonite, and chlorite. Kaolinite is also found but it is not certain that it is only of inherited origin. Weathering of the clays during soil formation brings about complete degradation of the expansible trioctahedral minerals, a process usually well advanced in the B or even at the top of the C horizon, and vermiculitization of mica. The latter process occurs mainly in the A horizon, with concomitant precipitation of interlayer aquohydroxy-aluminium ions thereby forming a vermiculite-chlorite intergrade. Chlorite and kaolinite appear to be little affected by weathering. The weathering transformations are most pronounced in freely drained acid soils (pH < s) and are at a minimum in poorly drained soils and where the pH remains above 6. The susceptibility to weathering of the trioctahedral expansible minerals results in relatively high values for exchangeable magnesium at the base of the profile.