engleski

Indications of polygenetic formation of some Croatian Stagnosols

Stagnosols (Pseudogleys) are the most widespread soils in the Pannonian region of Croatia. They largely formed on non-calcareous loess materials. These loess materials probably originated from different sources and were deposited in partially different environments. Hence, the loess-derived parent materials of Croatian Stagnosols may be considered polygenetic. However, Stagnosols on these parent materials seem to have developed primarily by normal (top-down) pedogenesis. In this study, we wanted to investigate if the three Stagnosol profiles, which we studied along the mean annual precipitation (MAP) gradient (700-1100 mm) in the Pannonian region of Croatia, formed by normal pedogenesis. Several morphological soil properties agreed with the MAP gradient. However, pH and base saturation were the only two chemical properties that were in line with the MAP gradient. Clay content and CEC were not in line with MAP mainly due to heterogeneity of loess- derived parent materials across the study area. Mineral compositions of heavy and light mineral associations of the investigated parent materials, which were obtained by modal analysis, confirmed that there was more than one source of loess material in the study area. Most redoximorphic features in each soil profile formed in situ, by pseudogleization as a still active process. Moreover, in each soil profile, vertical distributions of clay, coarse silt, and fine silt indicated top-down pedogenesis. However, high content of organic C at the bottom of one soil profile may be the result of erosion/sedimentation processes. And an unusually high content of clay throughout the subsoil of another profile may be largely caused by sedimentation of loess in a paleo- swamp or some similar (shallow) water body. Given the cases studied in this paper, we concluded that some Croatian Stagnosols should be considered polygenetic.

Pseudogleys ; Loess parent materials ; Pannonian region of Croatia ; Forest soils ; Modal analysis.

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