| Abstract: | This study is based on a sequence of soils on a typical slope of the Himalayas in central Nepal from 2300 m to 4000 m. Above 2300 m the land is forested and at 4000 m forest gives way to alpine meadows.The soils have developed in silty loam materials derived from weathering of micaschists. They are humic, acid and strongly desaturated. Their spatial distribution is related to the bioclimatic zonation: acid brown soils and deep humic acid soils occur in the mountain zone and podzols and brown podzolic soils in the subalpine and alpine ones.Biological activity and “maturation” of humus decrease with increasing elevation. The podzolization process dominates. There is intense weathering of ferruginous phyllosilicates in eluvial horizons and accumulation of amorphous products in B horizons. |
