EFFECTS OF VEGETATION ON PROPERTIES OF SANDY SOILS IN CENTRAL ALBERTA

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Soil Science
• Main Authors: FYLES, J. W., McGILL, W. B.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1988
• Subjects: Soil Science; Slave Lake
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.4141/cjss88-035; https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4141/cjss88-035

It was hypothesized that topographic location, fire, species characteristics, and soil texture interacted to maintain stable vegetation patterns on the landscape. As a corollary, relationships would exist between specific vegetation and profile development patterns, they would not be masked by secondary succession, and they would explain the distribution of both plant communities and soil types in the landscape. This hypothesis was tested in a study of soils and vegetation at eight sites representing three forest types (pine/lichen; closed canopy jack pine; white spruce) on sand ridges near the town of Slave Lake, Alberta. Differences in profile characteristics among soils studied corresponded to differences in vegetation. Soils under white spruce and jack pine/alder forest showed evidence of greater translocation of amorphous iron and aluminum than soils under jack pine/lichen woodland. The fractionation of phosphorus among organic, Ca–, Al–, and Fe– phosphates differed between soils under the three forest types as did the development of a textural B horizon. Clay eluviation appeared to be dependent primarily on initial clay content of the parent material although a contributory influence of vegetation was suggested. Integration of processes involved in soil profile development with those controlling vegetation dynamics particularly fire behavior, appears to provide a conceptual basis for explaining the distribution of soils in the landscape of the study area. Key words: Central Alberta, vegetation, sandy soils, eluviation, phosphorus fractions, soil development, fire