Author Question: Explain how one could differentiate a soil that had developed under a grassland cover from one that ... (Read 75 times)

casperchen82 · **on:** Jul 13, 2018

Explain how one could differentiate a soil that had developed under a grassland cover from one that had developed under a forest cover.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Why do tropical rainforests usually have poor soils?

What will be an ideal response?

bigcheese9 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 13, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Answer: Grassland: humus-rich A horizon with plentiful cations. They have thick, dark A horizons, weak B horizons, and a C horizon present. Forest: Main source of organic material from leaf decay, thinner A horizon, acidic soils, reddish clay-rich B horizons.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: These forests are underlain by Oxisols which are the product of extreme weather. The soils are deep but contain small amounts of nutrients because of leaching. In the natural world, the nutrients are rapidly recycled into other plants once a plant has died. However, once the trees have been cut down, the soils are not able to sustain much agriculture.