Magnetic mineral diagenesis

Hydric soils are described in Chapter 2 as soils that formed under anaerobic conditions that develop while the soils are inundated or saturated near their surface. These soils can form under a variety of hydrologic regimes that include nearly continuous saturation (swamps, marshes), short-duration flooding (riparian systems), and periodic saturation by groundwater. The most significant effect of excess water is isolation of the soil from the atmosphere and the prevention of O 2 from entering the soil. The blockage of atmospheric O 2 induces biological and chemical processes that change the soil from an aerobic and oxidized state to an anaerobic and reduced state. This shift in the aeration status of the soil allows chemical reactions to occur that develop the common characteristics of hydric soils, such as the accumulation of organic carbon in A horizons, gray-colored subsoil horizons, and production of gases such as H 2 S and CH 4 . In addition, the creation of anaerobic conditions requires adaptations in plants if they are to survive in the anaerobic hydric soils. This chapter discusses the chemistry of hydric soils by focusing on the oxidation–reduction reactions that affect certain properties and functions of hydric soils and form the indicators by which hydric soils are identified (Chapter 7). Both the biological and chemical functions of wetlands are controlled to a large degree by oxidation–reduction chemical reactions (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993). The fundamentals behind these reactions will be reviewed in this chapter along with methods of monitoring these reactions in the field, and the effects of these reactions on major nutrient cycles in wetlands. In our experience, soil chemistry is probably the subject least understood by students of hydric soils and wetlands in general. Therefore, the following treatment is intended to be simple, and to cover those topics that can be related to the field study of hydric soils. Students wishing more detailed treatments are encouraged to consult the work of Ponnamperuma (1972) in particular, as well as the discussion of redox reactions in McBride (1994) and Sparks (1995).

Redox Chemistry of Hydric Soils

Analysis of stacked Permo-Pennsylvanian palaeosols from north-central Texas documents the influence of palaeolandscape position on pedogenesis in aggradational depositional settings. Palaeosols of the Eastern shelf of the Midland basin exhibit stratigraphic trends in the distribution of soil horizons, structure, rooting density, clay mineralogy and colour that record long-term changes in soil-forming conditions driven by both local processes and regional climate. Palaeosols similar to modern histosols, ultisols, vertisols, inceptisols and entisols, all bearing morphological, mineralogical and chemical characteristics consistent with a tropical, humid climate, represent the Late Pennsylvanian suite of palaeosol orders. Palaeosols similar to modern alfisols, vertisols, inceptisols, aridisols and entisols preserve characteristics indicative of a drier and seasonal tropical climate throughout the Lower Permian strata. The changes in palaeosol morphology are interpreted as being a result of an overall climatic trend from relatively humid and tropical, moist conditions characterized by high rainfall in the Late Pennsylvanian to progressively drier, semi-arid to arid tropical climate characterized by seasonal rainfall in Early Permian time. Based on known Late Palaeozoic palaeogeography and current hypotheses for atmospheric circulation over western equatorial Pangea, the Pennsylvanian palaeosols in this study may be recording a climate that is the result of an orographic control over regionalscale atmospheric circulation. The trend towards a drier climate interpreted from the Permian palaeosols may be recording the breakdown of this preexisting orographic effect and the onset of a monsoonal atmospheric circulation system over this region.

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Morphology and distribution of fossil soils in the Permo-Pennsylvanian Wichita and Bowie Groups, north-central Texas, USA: implications for western equatorial Pangean palaeoclimate during icehouse-greenhouse transition

L. Boersma

Papers

Soil Morphology and Water Table Relations: II. Correlation Between Annual Water Table Fluctuations and Profile Features1