Soils and Landforms at Hope Bay, Antarctic Peninsula: Formation, Classification, Distribution, and Relationships

Abstract

Antarctic soils occur in restricted areas, but few integrated studies on soils and landforms have focused in the Antarctic Peninsula. We studied the representative soils of Hope Bay, emphasizing the processes of quaternary sedimentation, landforms, soil classification, and distribution. Results show that landforms and soils are closely associated in Hope Bay. Ornithogenic soils are associated with Late Pleistocene to Holocene stable ground moraines; these are currently being destroyed by thermokarst erosion around Lake Boekella. Lithic Haploturbels occur chiefly on shallow rocky terrains whereas Typic Haploturbels are found on patterned ground. In Hope Bay, a much colder climate prevails compared with the South Shetlands, and the widespread permafrost close to the surface warrants strong cryoclastic weathering with active and general gelifraction across different lithologies. The shallow occurrence of permafrost in Hope Bay has a strong regulating effect on soils, retarding leaching and soil development processes. Local soils are, in general, shallow and cryoturbic, and the current pedoenvironment on lowland stable areas was subjected to varying phosphatization on previously weathered sedimentary material. The evidence of phosphatization of a formerly larger area appears to be the main driver of pedogenesis at Hope Bay, and nesting activity by penguins on stable surfaces is capable of enhancing weathering and soil formation.