Plinthosol

Soil profile of a Plinthosol

Plinthosol is one of the 32 reference soil groups of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). Plinthosols are characterized by high levels of iron oxides. The enrichment takes place in the course of the ferrallitization . In some cases there is also a supply from rising groundwater or slope water. Characteristic spatial patterns result from (mostly no longer recent) redox processes: with backwater (which is more common), concretions form, with groundwater network -like accumulations.

Depending on the training, there are different diagnostic horizons. These horizons can be soft or moderately hardened ( plinthic horizon ), contain numerous individual hard concretions ( pisoplinthic horizon ) or continuously hardened ( petroplinthic horizon ). In some countries, Plinthic horizons are mined, dried and made into bricks ( ancient Greek : plinthos = bricks), which in turn are used to build houses and roads.

Due to the special conditions for soil formation, plinthosols hardly cover large contiguous areas. Most of them are found in the summer humid tropics , occasionally also in the always humid tropics or in the subtropics . They are also found relic in the temperate zone , often buried by newer soil formations.

The small root space and, in the case of the petroplinthic horizon, the impermeability to water hardly allows for arable farming ; at best, forestry or grazing can be used.

Web links

• Profile photos (with classification) WRB homepage
• Profile photos (with classification) IUSS World of Soils

literature

• IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014, Update 2015. World Soil Resources Reports 106, FAO, Rome 2015. ISBN 978-92-5-108369-7 ( PDF 2.3 MB).
• W. Zech, P. Schad, G. Hintermaier-Erhard: Soils of the world. 2nd Edition. Springer Spectrum, Heidelberg 2014. ISBN 978-3-642-36574-4 .
• W. Amelung, H.-P. Blume , H. Fleige, R. Horn, E. Kandeler , I. Kögel-Knabner , R. Kretschmar, K. Stahr , B.-M. Wilke: Scheffer / Schachtschabel textbook of soil science. 17th edition. Heidelberg 2018. ISBN 978-3-662-55870-6 .