carbonates are among the most common soil constituents in arid and semiarid zones. they exhibit many significant differences in their chemical and mineralogical, suite, origin, physical and micromorphological properties and consequently in their activities in soil. the differences cause different properties of calcareous soils. six profiles of aridisols and inceptisols with carbonate accumulati...

Pedogenesis can be slow or fast depending on the internal chemical response to environmental forcing factors. When a shift in the external environment does not produce any pedogenic change even though one is expected, the soil is said to be in a state of pedogenic inertia. In contrast, soil properties sometimes change suddenly and irreversibly in a threshold response to external stimuli or inte...

Parent materials greatly influence soil development and the distribution of soils on the southeastern US Coastal Plain. We examined the physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties of 11 pedons in a 1-ha plot on the Upper Coastal Plain of Georgia, USA. Uniformity of parent materials was assessed by sand grain size characteristics. The soils have sandy epipedons of variable thickness and arg...

The chemical, morphological and mineralogical properties of two Enon sandy loam (fine, mixed, thermic Ultic Hapludalfs) soilsaprolite profiles, one formed on gabbro and the other on metagabbro, are compared. Clay skins are scarce and stress cutans common in the argillic horizons of these soils. Iron-manganese concretions are concentrated in soil horizons immediately above the argillic horizons....

Species ranges are mediated by physiology, environmental factors, and competition with other organisms. The allopatric distribution of five species of northern Californian pocket gophers (Thomomys spp.) is hypothesized to result from competitive exclusion. The five species in this environmentally heterogeneous region separate into two subgenera, Thomomys or Megascapheus, which have divergent di...

In this paper, a set of physical, geochemical and mineralogical indicators are proposed for the correlation of soil age. The parameters studied allowed the highlighting of trends in soil aging as well as the relating of these trends to specific soil forming processes. Soil aging was marked by a progressive increase in clay content and a decrease in silt/clay ratio, a slight reduction in the CEC...

The negative impact of nitrate (NO3) on groundwater supplies has sparked a great deal of interest and concern in recent years, particularly in areas where coarse-textured soils abound. In light of this concern, the anion exchange chemistry of eight soils from the Middle Atlantic region was studied with particular emphasis on NO3 retention and kinetics. The soils were chosen to encompass a range...