Monday, November 5, 2007 - 10:00 AM
104-4

Lateral Clay Movement and Soil Wetness in a Fragiaqualf catena.

H.E. Winzeler1, Phillip Owens1, B.D. Lee2, Jim Camberato2, and Brad Joern3. (1) Purdue University-Agronomy Dept., Purdue University, 1602 Evans Ave, Valparaiso, IN 46383, (2) Purdue University, Agronomy Department, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (3) Dept of Agronomy Lilly Hall, Purdue University-Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ., 915 W State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054

A Fragiaqualf-Fragiudalf catena in Wisconsinan loess overlying Illinoisan till shows strong evidence of lateral movement of clays. We extracted soils in 4 transects perpendicular to the gradation in drainage class (from poorly-drained to moderately-well drained) and analyzed soil texture with the pipet method. Correlations between clay content and drainage class were high. Correlations between clay content and the compound topographical index (CTI = ln(a/tanb, where a = the upstream contributing area, and b = the slope) were also high. One reason for this horizontal lessivage may be the fragipan and fragic properties of the poorly-drained soils. Clays become suspended and move to the more well-drained edges of the site. This is a "red edge"-type study. We analyzed the textures at three depths: 0-10 cm, 25-35 cm, and 55-65 cm. All samples were georeferenced, allowing for geostatistical and geospatial data analysis.