Complex pedogenesis related to differential aeolian sedimentation in microenvironments of the southern part of the semiarid region of Argentina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explain soil genesis and spatial variability in the soil cover of a flat landscape in the southern part of Argentina's semiarid region. Soil survey data indicate random differences in the properties of soils lying within a few hundred meters of one another, as reflected in an intricate distribution pattern which cannot be explained by the climatic theory of soil genesis in a single pedogenetic cycle. This pattern is unrelated to the actual vegetation cover. The soil parent materials consist of a <2-m mantle of aeolian Holocene sediments overlying a thick plio-Pleistocene “tosca” layer (calcrete, caliche). The undulations in the tosca layer are indicative of a paleomicrorelief levelled up to the present surface after the deposition of the Holocene sediments. Soils with fine-textured sandy loess and strong development (Meridiano soil: A–Bw–Ck–2Ckm) occupied a higher position within paleomicrorelief of the tosca layer. Adjacent soils on border or intermediate positions of the petrocalcic paleosurface have more complex profiles with a relict calcic horizon (Vizcachera soil: A–C–2Ck–3Ckm) and coarser texture (silty clayey sand) in the topsoil. In the lower positions of the paleomicrorelief of the tosca layer, the silty clayey sand directly overlie the petrocalcic horizon (El Khazen soil: A–C–2Ckm). The intricate distribution pattern is due to the coexistence of older polypedon (Meridiano soil), remnants of an earlier erosion cycle complexed with two younger soils, one from partial erosion (Vizcachera soil) and the other where total erosion of earlier soils was followed by successive pulses of aeolian deposition (El Khazen soil). The distribution pattern of the three soils thus reflects a complex history involving at least three stages of landscape evolution.