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VEGETATION, ASPECT, AND TIME AS FACTORS OF GLEYING IN PODZOLS OF SOUTH WALES
Author(s) -
CRAMPTON C. B.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 0022-4588
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1965.tb01433.x
Subject(s) - eluvium , podzol , ericaceae , horizon , geology , vegetation (pathology) , floristics , ecology , geography , physical geography , paleontology , soil water , biology , soil science , species richness , physics , medicine , pathology , astronomy
Summary The study is primarily concerned with the very extensive loamy podzols showing imperfect drainage in the eluvial horizon (Crampton, 1963 a ). The preferential preservation of Polypodium spores and the less complete floristic sequence recorded by pollen grains in podzols on warm slopes with W. or S. aspect, and greater prominence of Ericaceae and birch in the vegetational history of podzols on cold slopes with N. or E. aspect, suggest that those soils on the colder slopes were both the wetter and more acid in the past. Gleying and the development of associated structures in the eluvial horizon probably began under Ericaceae during early medieval times, and are continuing. In the spoil tips occurring across the north crop of the Coal Measures, where undisturbed for over 100 years, these structures and gleying have developed only in cold, damp pockets associated with Ericaceae on slopes with NW., N., or E. aspect. A similar but less rigid relationship occurs in places of high relief outside the spoil tips. The essential elements of these structures may develop remarkably quickly, and can be seen on opencast sites fifteen years after restoration under pastures which have become impoverished through neglect.