Hydro-physical properties of soils developed from different parent materials

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to compare some selected hydro-physical properties of soils developed from different parent material under the same climate type, similar topography and vegetation cover and to present significant differences in the soil characteristics with numerical values. For this purpose, five different sites with similar topography, vegetation cover, the same climate type, and different parent materials were selected in the northeast part of Turkey where some studies were previously carried out by scientists from the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University. The parent materials in the sites were granite, clayey limestone (upper triassic), clayey limestone (upper cretaceous), neocene, and arkose. Results indicated that all properties studied except for saturation capacity and particle density of soils differed significantly with respect to the parent materials. Compared to other soil types developed from the parent materials, granite formed soils with greater sand and lower silt contents, numerically greater porosity, and significantly higher dispersion ratio and organic matter. on the other hand, soils formed on arkose parent materials had the lowest pH value, numerically the greatest available water content and saturation capacity and organic matter percentage. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.