Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:29:13.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Age of Vertisols and Its Interpretation Using Data on Gilgai Complex in the North Caucasus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Irina Kovda ,
Warren Lynn ,
Dewayne Williams  and
Olga Chichagova
Irina Kovda
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny 29, 109017 Moscow, Russia. Email: [email protected]
Warren Lynn
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Conservation Service, USA
Dewayne Williams
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Conservation Service, USA
Olga Chichagova
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny 29, 109017 Moscow, Russia. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Radiocarbon dates were analyzed to assess Vertisols age around the world. They show an increase of radiocarbon age from mainly modern–3000 BP in 0–100 cm layer up to 10,000 BP at a depth 100–200 cm. Older dates reflect the age of parent material. The inversion of 14C dates seems to be a frequent phenomenon in Vertisols. A series of new dates of Vertisols from gilgai microhigh, microslope and microlow in the North Caucasus was done in order to understand the nature of this inversion. 14C age in the gilgai soil complex ranges from 70 ± 45 BP in the microlow to 5610 ± 180 BP in the microhigh. A trend of similar depths being younger in the microslope and microlow was found. We explain this by intensive humus rejuvenation in the microlows due to water downward flow. The older date in the microhigh represents the old humus horizon sheared laterally close to the surface and preserved by impermeable water regime. We explain inversions of 14C age-depth curves by the sampling procedures. In a narrow pit, genetically different parts of former gilgai could easily be as a genetically uniform soil profile. Because of this strong microvariability, Vertisols require sampling in a trench accounting for gilgai elements, even when gilgai are not obvious.

Type
I. Our ‘Dry’ Environment: Above Sea Level
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 2B: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 3), Conference Editors: Israel Carmi, Elisabetta Boaretto , 2001 , pp. 603 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Alexandrovsky, A, Chichagova, O. 1998. The 14C age of humic substances in paleosols. Radiocarbon 40(2): 991–7.Google Scholar
Arai, S, Hatta, T, Tanaka, U, Hayamizu, K, Kigoshi, K, Ito, O. 1996. Characterization of the organic components of an Alfisol and a Vertisol in adjacent locations in Indian semi-arid tropics using optical spectroscopy, 13C NMR spectroscopy, and 14C dating. Geoderma 69:59–70.Google Scholar
Beckmann, GG, Hubble, GD, Thompson, CH. 1970. Gilgai forms, distribution and soil relationships in North-Eastern Australia. Paper No 2898. Symposium on soils and earth structures in arid climates. Adelaide: 88–93.Google Scholar
Blackburn, G, Sleeman, JR, Scharpenseel, HW. 1979. Radiocarbon measurements and soil micromorphology as guides to the formation of gilgai at Kaniva, Victoria. Aust. J. Soil Res. 19:1–15.Google Scholar
Cherkinsky, AE, Brovkin, VA. 1993. Dynamics of radiocarbon in soils. Radiocarbon 35(3):363–7.Google Scholar
Chichagova, OA. 1985. Radiocarbon dating of soil humus. Moscow: Nauka. 157 p.Google Scholar
Chichagova, OA, Cherkinsky, AE. 1993. Problems in radiocarbon dating of soils. Radiocarbon 35(3):351–62.Google Scholar
Dudal, R. 1965. Dark clay soils of tropical and subtropical regions. FAO Agricultural Development Paper No 83. Rome: FAO. 161 p.Google Scholar
Goryachkin, SV, Cherkinsky, AE, Chichagova, OA. 2000. The soil organic carbon dynamics in high latitudes of Eurasia using 14C data and the impact of potential climate change. In: Lal, R, Kimble, JM, Stewart, BA, editors. Global climate change and cold regions ecosystems. London, New York. p 145–61.Google Scholar
Kovda, I, Morgun, E, Alekseeva, T. 1992. Development of gilgai soil cover in Central Ciscaucasia. Eurasian Soil Science 24(6):28–45.Google Scholar
Kovda, I, Morgun, E, Ryskov, Ya. 1996a. Structural-functional analysis of gilgai soil microcomplex: morphological features and moisture dynamics. Eurasian Soil Science 28(12):20–38.Google Scholar
Kovda, I, Morgun, E, Tessier, D. 1996b. Etude de Vertisols a gilgai du Nord-Caucase: mecanismes de differenciation et aspects pedogeochimiques. Etude et gestion des sols 3(1):41–52.Google Scholar
Kovda, I, Williams, D, Lynn, W, Morgun, E. 1999. Soilgeochemical structure of Vertisols areas in temperate and subtropical climate. Proceedings of the International Conference on Genesis, Geography and Ecology of Soils. Lviv, Ukraine. p 46–8.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, HW Pietig, F. 1973a. University of Bonn natural radiocarbon measurements V. Radiocarbon 15(1):13–41.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, HW Pietig, F. 1973b. University of Bonn natural radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 15(2):252–79.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Laboratory Methods Manual. 1996. Soil Survey Investigations Report No. 42. Version 3. USDA-NRCS-NSSC.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff. 1998. Key to Soil Taxonomy. USDA-NRCS. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Stephan, S, Berrier, J, De Petre, AA, Jeanson, C, Kooistra, MJ, Scharpenseel, HW, Schiffmann, H. 1983. Characterization of in situ organic matter constituents in Vertisols from Argentina, using submicroscopic and cytochemical metods – first report. Geoderma 30(1–4): 21–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilding, LP, Tessier, D. 1988. Genesis of Vertisols: shrink-swell phenomena. In: Wilding, LP, Puentes, R, editors. Vertisols: their distribution, properties, classification and management. Texas A & M University. Technical Monograph 18:55–81.Google Scholar
Wilding, LP, Williams, D, Miller, W, Cook, T, Eswaran, H. 1990. Close interval spatial microvariability of Vertisols: a case study in Texas. In: Kimble, JM, editor. Proceedings of the Sixth International Soil Correlation Meeting. Characterization, classification and utilization of cold Aridisols and Vertisols. Lincoln, Nebraska: USDA Soil Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Center, p 232–47.Google Scholar
Williams, D, Cook, T, Lynn, W, Eswaran, H. 1996. Evaluating the field morphology of Vertisols. Soil Survey Horizons 37:123–30.Google Scholar
Yaalon, DH, Kalmar, D. 1978. Dynamics of cracking and swelling clay soils: displacement of skeletal grains, optimum depth of slickensides, and rate of intra-pedonic turbation. Earth Surface Processes 3:31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar