Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1973

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences

Major Professor

Maxwell E. Springer

Abstract

Six Ultisols were selected from the Plateau Slope of West Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau to determine kinds of and discontinuities in the parent materials from which the soils formed and to determine the influence of these parent materials on properties of the soils. Also, a loess hypothesis for the origin of part of the silty upper horizons for some soils from the Cumberland Plateau was tested. Well drained soils were sampled along ridgetops and sideslopes in both regions. Soils on sideslopes were derived mostly from local residuum while ridgetop soils were derived from local residuum overlain by a thin silty mantle. Horizons of polygenetic soils formed in the silty materials were emphasized in comparing properties among soils of the two regions. Characteristics of the deeper horizons were compared to neighboring soils to establish relationships among horizons in which part of the parent material was similar. Soils were described and sampled from freshly dug pits. Proper ties determined in the laboratory included particle size distribution, bulk density, pH, exchangeable bases and Al, extractable acidity, organic carbon, free Fe2O3, elemental Zr and Ti, K-feldspars, and mica. In the upper 60 cm, amounts of K-feldspars, coarse silt/fine silt ratios, silt content, and base saturations among the soils were in the order: Memphis > Lexington > Silerton > Lonewood-1 and 2. Titanium and sand content were in reverse order. Mixing within silty mantles was greatest in Lonewood-1 and 2 and least in Lexington. Silerton was intermediate but more similar to Lexington. Properties of soils from the Cumberland Plateau indicate horizons in the upper 60 cm of Lonewood-1 and 2 have developed in silty material believed to be Pleistocene loess. In both soils layers between these horizons and 105 cm are an admixture of loess and paleosols. Below 105 cm is an old soil and underlying residuum. Hartsells has formed in an admixture of small amounts of silty materials with the sandstone residuum. In Silerton, properties indicate horizons in the upper 58 cm have formed mainly in loess and those between 58 and 71 cm in an ad mixture of loess and the upper part of a paleosol. The remainder of the paleosol formed in coastal plain clay is below 71 cm. Shubuta has formed in clayey coastal plain sediments with little evidence of loess contamination. The upper 100 cm of Ruston have formed in coastal plain sand with small amounts of loess. Below 100 cm horizons are in coastal plain sand. Of the six soils sampled, three were Paleudults and three were Hapludults.

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