topography and climate are two important soil forming factors affecting genesis and clay mineralogy of soils. calcareous and gypsiferous soils are widely spread in arid and semiarid parts of iran and palygorskite is a dominant clay mineral in these soils. the objectives of the study were to: (1) determine soil genesis and classification along the climotoposequence and (2) investigate clay miner...

carbon and sulfur isotopic data are helpful in understanding environmental conditions under which soils are formed. soils from 18 sampling sites along a climotoposequence from higher laleh zar mountains (4,351 m above sea level with xeric-mesic soil moisture-temperature regimes) to shahdad depression (250 m above sea level with arid-hyperthermic soil moisture-temperature regimes) in kerman prov...