Pedological Development and Weathering Rates of Young Soils Formed on Different Parent Materials under Semi-Arid Ecological Condition

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to determine the weathering rates of young soils formed under the same climatic conditions on different geological parent material and to examine the effects of the parent material on soil formation. Within the scope of the study, geo-chemical, physico-chemical, primary, and secondary mineralogical properties of three young soils, formed on magmatic, metamorphic, and sedimentary parent material, distributed around the Sandıklı district of Afyonkarahisar province in the Aegean Region of Turkey, were determined on profile-base and the dissociation indices were calculated. At the end of the study, the effect of different parent materials on soil genesis under the same climatic conditions was revealed, and weathering indices namely the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA), Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW), and Base/R2O3 ratio were calculated. In this way, mineralogical, physico-chemical and geo-chemical properties, which are considered as the measurement degree of soil formation, are correlated parametrically. According to the results obtained; since sub-surface diagnostic horizons were not detected, the investigated soils were classified as Entisol since they did not complete their pedological development. When compared to the decomposition rates of soils, all three soils located on different parent materials are at the initial stage of their formation and it has been determined that soils are still under the influence of their parent materials in terms of their physico-chemical, geo-chemical and mineralogical properties.

Keywords

• young soil
• weathering rates
• clay minerology
• semi-arid conditions
• pedology