With Regard to the Chromic Luvisols in Romania

Abstract

There are many written reports concerning the formation and the distribution of chromic luvisols of Romania. In many cases it cases it has been apreciated the fact that their presence would due to some specific condition, the stress being focused on the Mediterranean nuance of climate.Newer pedological studies show that these soils have a distribution area more restrained. In fact they appear within some narrow interfluves or marginal stripes of some well drained interfluves formed at their surface of loess or loess-like deposits.A major role in their formation is that soil climate expressed by a definitive hydrical regime, probably an alternotranspercolative one.The colour intensity seems to be influenced both by the hydration state of iron and of iron content of parent material. Iron hydroxide suffers a rapid dehydration under prolonged drought condition of soil; they turn into rusty sesquioxides of goethite type, hydrohematite type, inducing to the soil the reddish brown colour.In a more recent work N. Florea and M. Cicotti (1976) stated that chromic luvisols should not be regarded as a zona structured soil formed in the current area, but as a largely inherited, developed under different climates.