ABSTRACT:
This study was conducted to determined the effects of erosion on morphology and classification of five Alfisols and nine Mollisols in north central United States. Horizon thickness and solum thickness decreased with increasing amounts of erosion. Transitional horizons between Ap and B horizons were absent in some moderately eroded and most severely eroded soils. With increasing erosion Ap horizons tended to increase in clay content when underlain by a Bt horizon and become lighter in color. Depths to the bottom of Bt horizons and to C horizons were reduced as erosion increased. Estimates of soil loss from these soils can best be made using the lower boundary of a Bt horizon or a fragipan, the depth to the C horizon, or a lithologic discontinuity. Eleven (two of five Alfisols and all nine Mollisols) severely and eight (one Alfisol and seven Mollisols) moderately eroded soils failed to meet criteria for the taxonomic placement of the associated uneroded soils.
Footnotes
D.L. Mokma is a professor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824. T.E. Fenton is a professor, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011. K.R. Olson is an associate professor, Department of Agronomy, University of Illinois Urbana, 61801. Supported in part by Cooperative Regional Research Funds NC-174, Soil Productivity and Erosion. The authors acknowledge A.J. Jones, University of Nebraska, M.J. Lindstrom, USDA-ARS, Morris, MN, B. Lowery, University of Wisconsin, and T.E. Schumacher, South Dakota State University for their assistance, including providing data, with the study.
- Copyright 1996 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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