The influence of alkaline and non-alkaline parent material on soil chemistry

• The gneiss bedrock at Alnö Island, (62o24N, 17o30E) in the middle of Sweden, has alkaline intrusions interspersed in narrow dikes. This gives an opportunity to study the impact of different parent material on soil solution in a homogeneous spruce stand. In this study, the alkaline parent materials gave rise to a soil solution with significantly (p 0.05) higher concentrations of DOC, SO4, NO3, Ca and Mg compared to the non-alkaline sites. For the deepest mineral horizons, 25-30cm, F and pH were also higher in the alkaline soil solutions. There were almost no differences between the organic horizons at alkaline and non-alkaline sites, probably explained by the influence of litter and recirculation of nutrients. The multivariate analyses emphasized the correlation between the parent material and the soil solution concentrations of Ca, Mg, PO4 and Al. The data were statistically evaluated by t-tests, ANOVA (Analysis of variances), PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and PLS (Partial Least Squares regression).

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

parent material

soil solution chemistry

calcareous soil

nitrification

Chemistry

Kemi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)