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Classing the Soil Skeleton (Greater than Two Millimeters): Proposed Approach and Procedure

Dipartimento de Scienza del Suolo e Nutrizione della Pianta, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Piazzale delle Cascine 28, 50144 Firenze, Italy

*Corresponding author (corti{at}iges.fi.cnr.it).

ABSTRACT

In soil science, analytical procedures apply almost exclusively to the fine earth (<2 mm). Rock fragments or skeleton (>2 mm) are regarded as inert and discarded during sieving; however, we have found that the clasts display physical and chemical properties that can equal or surpass those of the fine earth. These properties depend largely on the degree of alteration of the clasts. In light of these findings, we developed a method to separate the rock fragments into weathering classes. This method has been applied to five European skeleton-rich soils derived from different parent materials. Color intensity, roughness and irregularities of the surfaces, cracks, and surface features of the exposed minerals were considered reliable criteria for the separation of the clasts. We noticed also that the degree of alteration of the clasts corresponds to size: as size decreased, weathering increased. Consequently, sieving could be used for separating the weathering classes. On the basis of these criteria, clasts were differentiated into highly, moderately, and slightly altered. There are statistically significant differences among the weathering classes in terms of bulk density, porosity, organic C, total N, and cation-exchange capacity. There are no statistically significant differences in pH. The results confirm that the procedure separates relatively homogeneous and different classes of rock fragments. We also compared the characteristics of the soil skeleton to those of the fine earth and fresh rock. We concluded that not characterizing the skeleton of the soils may provide distorted information on the capability of these substrata.

Received for publication July 17, 1996.

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