Water retention of the loess-derived Luvisols with lamellic illuvial horizon in the Trzebnica Hills (SW Poland)

Abstract

Abstract The aim of work was to characterize the water retention in the silt-textured Luvisols with lamellic illuvial horizon (argic) that occur in the loess covered northern part of the Silesian Lowland. Soil pits were localized on the Trzebnica Hills near the villages: Machnice (profile 1), Skarszyn (profile 2) and Zaprężyn (profile 3 and 4). Profiles Machnice 1 and Skarszyn 2 were situated in the upper parts of the hills covered with beech stands with an admixture of oak, linden and maple. Profiles Zaprężyn 3 and 4 were situated in the central and lower parts of the arable slope. During the field work conducted in April 2011, 29 soil samples were collected for texture, bulk density and water properties analysis. The soils under study were characterized by texture of silt loam with lower clay content in humus horizons (.loamy silt. according to Polish classification), and higher clay content (.clayey silt.) in the illuvial and subsoil horizons. The texture of all examined profiles was dominated by the „loess“ fractions. Variable abundance of the massive lamellae causes variations in water properties of the illuvial (sub-)horizons. It was found that lamellic illuvial horizons in the loess-derived Luvisols have higher field water capacity than the homogenous illuvial horizons, apart of the clay content. There was no apparent effect of the horizon kind (homogeneous versus lamellic) on the soil bulk density. These properties mainly depended on the total clay content in a particular horizon (sub-horizon).