Aeolian silt contribution to soils on mountain slopes (Mt. Ślęża, southwest Poland)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the possible contribution of aeolian silt to soils of Mt. Ślęża (southwest Poland). Silt loam textures are common across Lower Silesia and are often confused with silt clay loam, especially at the outer boundaries with thin loess deposits. Eight study sites with different thicknesses of silt loam mantles that are covered and/or mixed with underlying sediments were examined in the field. To test our hypothesis, we analyzed the particle size and geochemistry of representative horizons. Concentrations of major and trace elements as well as their cross ratios confirmed the aeolian origin of silt loam materials and clearly distinguished them from basal sediments. There is a clear relationship between the presence and depth of aeolian mantles and mixing zones with the type of underlying material. Furthermore, the incorporation of aeolian silt to regoliths/soils was a main agent initiating and stimulating clay translocation leading to the formation of an argic horizon below the silt mantles. Mixing aeolian silt with acid granite regoliths and further illuviation resulted in the formation of alisols, while silt contributions to serpentine sediments resulted in development of skeletic luvisols. Soils receiving very weak input of aeolian silts remain as leptosols/cambisols.

Morphological diversity of chernozemic soils in south-western Poland

“…The area is dominated by various variants of soils featured by subsurface clay illuviation, including the Haplic/Stagnic Luvisols and Albic/Glossic Planosols (Kaba³a et al 2015a). The foothills are covered by Luvisols/Luvic Stagnosols developed from slopecovers dominated by silty materials or having high admixture of aeolian silt, often in mosaics with Eutric Cambisols (Waroszewski et al 2018;. The central part of the Silesian Lowland is covered with Chernozems or Phaeozems, depending on the depth of carbonate leaching.…”

Polish Soil Classification, 6th edition – principles, classification scheme and correlations

“…Only the soils with "complete" sequence of crucial genetic (E-Bt) and diagnostic (eluwik-argik) horizons are considered "typical", whereas soils featured by Ap-Bt morphology are distinguished as eroded (truncated) clayilluvial soils (Kobierski 2013, OEwitoniak 2014. All these soils may be correlated with Luvisols in WRB2015 if the stagnic properties are weak to medium strong, or with Luvic Stagnosols if stagnic properties are strongly developed and start ≥25 cm from the soil surface (Waroszewski et al 2018). Many of such soils, both silty-and loamy-textured, have eluvial tongues in an argik horizon, thus commonly were classified as Albeluvisols in accordance with previous WRB versions (Szymañski et al 2011).…”

Identifying slope processes over time and their imprint in soils of medium‐high mountains of Central Europe (the Karkonosze Mountains, Poland)

“…Moreover, the relatively high elemental contents of Hf in the topsoil of K1 are indicative of aeolian input, as mentioned by many authors (Liator, ; Dahms, ; Küfmann, ; Muhs and Benedict, ; Munroe et al ., ; Újvári et al ., ; Lin and Feng, ; Geitner et al ., ; Schreib et al ., ; Waroszewski et al ., ). Also, the zirconium (Zr) and Ba contents are much higher in the topsoil than in subsoil horizons and point to a potential aeolian input.…”