J Soils Sediments DOI 10.1007/s11368-015-1079-5

SOIL FORMATION AND WEATHERING IN TIME AND SPACE

Preface Fabio Scarciglia & Markus Egli & Arnaud Temme

Received: 27 January 2015 / Accepted: 27 January 2015 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Keywords Soil formation and weathering . Soil weathering rates . Soil erosion rates . Chronosequences

1 Introduction The session ‘SSS1.7/G.5/SSP4.3 Soil formation and weathering in time and space’ that was held during the European Geosciences Union, General Assembly 2013, Vienna, Austria, 7–12 April 2013 aimed at discussing papers about soil formation and weathering rates, total denudation rates (including erosion processes), mineral formation and transformation rates, chronosequences, soil-time-climate related studies (also in a paleoenvironment-related context), spatial distribution of weathering landforms and soil properties, and encouraged contributions of soil formation and landscape modelling (over time and space). The initiative and idea of this session is closely related to the project ‘RAISIN’ (Rates

F. Scarciglia (*) Dipartimento di Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra (DiBEST), Università della Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, Cosenza, Italy e-mail: [email protected] M. Egli Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland A. Temme Chairgroup of Soil Geography and Landscape, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands A. Temme Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80303, USA

of soil-forming processes obtained from soils and paleosols in well-defined settings) of the ‘International Focus Group’ within the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) commission on ‘Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History (TERPRO)’. The project RAISIN represents a core project of the International Focus Group PASTSOILS. One main task of the RAISIN project is to review and summarize published and new studies on rates of soil-forming processes in different climates, also establishing a scientific network and promoting new multidisciplinary research. Numerous datasets on soil development exist. However, a synthesis of the results and establishment of a common state of the art and of ‘minimal’ suited, standardized methodologies to permit a comparison of results from different contexts, have not been achieved so far. With the EGU session, an attempt was made to bring together scientists working on soil and landscape development and to gain an overview of present-day activities and research trends.

2 Soil formation and weathering Chemical and physical weathering of rocks/sediments and consequent soil formation or degradation affect the cycle of elements from a local to a global scale. Natural chemical weathering and pedogenetic processes cannot usually be reproduced by experimental studies due to the time required. Soil chronosequences or paleosols can provide information about the weathering regimes and soil morphogenesis and have greatly advanced our understanding of short- to longterm landscape processes. Soils are known to evolve in complex, often non-linear ways over thousands of years. This is because both the type and intensity of soil-forming processes change over this timescale, e.g. due to changes in climate or vegetation. Consequently, soils may also contain paleoenvironmental information that is relevant for their evolution and process understanding.

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A special interest in a deeper knowledge of these issues follows from (i) the poorly renewable nature of soils as ecosystem resources, whose degradation or loss can take place more rapidly than their formation as a consequence of several natural and anthropogenic causes (e.g. climate changes, incorrect land management and overexploitation, pollution, erosion); (ii) the difficulty to predict future scenarios of soillandscape evolution based on reconstruction of past environments; (iii) the requirement to model the usually large spatial variability of soils at different scales (e.g. landscape or basinwide to site/profile or microscopic levels); and (iv) the desire to propose suitable policies for sustainable land exploitation, taking into account the above cited standpoints. Data and concepts about the behaviour of soil-forming processes in time and space are necessary to perform soil and landscape modelling. Landscape evolution models (LEMs) are able to quantitatively simulate the three-dimensional (3D) development of landscapes and soils over time (4D). As a result, LEMs have the potential to test and visualize landscape and soil evolution hypotheses (e.g. Temme et al. 2009; Tucker 2009). When calibrated with empirical soil weathering and erosion datasets, a LEM can formalize and relate fluxes to topographic position and climatic conditions. Several soil-focussed LEMs have recently been developed (Cohen et al. 2009; Vanwalleghem et al. 2013) and the International Union of Soil Sciences has formed a working group on the modelling of soil and landscape evolution. This is likely to result in a need for new and new types of field data. Studies on soil formation and weathering are needed to provide these. This special issue includes papers about soil weathering rates, short- to long-term erosion processes, rates of mineral formation and transformation, soil chronosequences and other soil-time related studies, climatic and paleoclimatic control on pedogenetic and morphodynamic processes, and contributions of soil formation and landscape modelling over time and space. A variety of methods have been applied, spanning from geomorphological and pedological surveys to experimental monitoring, from soil geochemistry, isotopic signature and cosmogenic nuclide analyses to mineralogy, petrography and soil micromorphology. In addition, modelling approaches embracing diverse levels of spatialisation are considered: from a more chemical-mineralogical up to landscape-based level. This broad approach enables an all-encompassing and integrated discussion about the development of soil systems. A special focus is given to Mediterranean and cold, alpine mountain environments and paleoenvironments. Using a geomorphic approach based on novel results and published datasets, Scarciglia (2015) investigated the exhumation of spheroidal boulder fields in the Sila Massif uplands (southern Italy), and derived from it an estimation of their depth of formation and total denudation rates. This approach enabled the calculation of volumes of eroded rock and longterm erosion (denudation) rates for the last about 400–800 ka.

In contrast to such a long-term setting, D’Amico et al. (2015) predominantly focussed on the last 200 years of soil formation in a proglacial area. Acidification, organic matter accumulation and mineral weathering on serpentinite seem to proceed more slowly compared to other sites having more a granitic parent material. In many other alpine areas, an exponential decline in the process rates can be observed with time, whereas with serpentinite, a humped function seems to be more typical. D’Amico et al. (2015) also confirm their earlier results that vegetation is a strong driver of the speed of development over space and time (D’Amico et al. 2014). Rellini et al. (2015) were able to reconstruct soil formation processes and landscape evolution using a pedosedimentary sequence in western Liguria (northern Italy). Main soil and weathering processes based on related pedofeatures could be modelled for the Lower, Middle and Upper Pleistocene and the Lateglacial/Holocene. Zerboni et al. (2015) investigated an interesting loesspaleosol sequence in another site of northern Italy, the central Po Plain. An integrated paleopedological, geochronological and geoarchaeological approach permitted to reconstruct major phases of tectonic activity, sedimentation and soil formation processes under changing climate conditions since the Middle to the Upper Pleistocene. Using chemical, minero-petrographic and field data, Perri et al. (2015) modelled the geochemistry and related weathering processes (reaction path models) of a granitoid profile in the Sila Massif, southern Italy. This approach enabled the prediction of secondary minerals such as ferrihydrite, saponite, vermiculite, illite and kaolinite and, based on standard thermodynamic properties of different illite endmembers, the varying compositions of illite. The modelled results were consistent with the mineral assemblages identified in the natural system including both weathering profiles and soils. Temme et al. (2015) tested the validity of the soil chronosequence approach using previously published large datasets on the spatial distribution of soil properties in highmountain proglacial valleys in the Swiss Alps (Temme and Lange 2014) and a new dataset of high-mountain soil variation in a formerly glaciated valley in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The main variable considered was the change in soil properties with soil age (divergence and convergence patterns). Divergence in properties with time was tentatively linked to a non-disturbed development of soils, and convergence was linked to homogenous external influences, such as debris flows providing fresh parent material. Alewell et al. (2015) compared soil production and formation rates to erosion rates in Alpine regions. Their concept shows that soil production and related tolerable erosion rates are a strong function of time. They conclude that today’s soil erosion rates in alpine agricultural land often considerably exceed soil formation, thus resulting in very shallow soils

J Soils Sediments

and loss of productivity and ecosystem services. Future global change is likely to increase soil erosion rates even further. Supporting this argument with other methods, a time-split approach enabled Zollinger et al. (2015) to determine longterm and short-term erosion and accumulation rates, and thus soil redistribution, in high-alpine areas. Using isotope techniques (10Be, 137Cs, 239+240Pu and δ13C), they demonstrated that soil redistribution rates seem to have increased during the last few decades. It cannot yet be fully clarified whether this is due to climate change. Microclimate seems to have some ‘macro-effects’ on soils. Egli et al. (2015) clearly demonstrated that moisture availability predominantly determines weathering rates, even in very cold environments (Altai Mountains, Russia). The geochemical evolution of soils (in the active layer of permafrost) is enhanced—similar to the European Alps (Egli et al. 2011)— on north-facing sites even though very severe climatic conditions prevail. Sauer et al. (2015) report findings from a study of duricrusts in soils in Portugal, on the transition between Mediterranean and Atlantic climates. The cementing agent in the crusts varied between sites, mainly as a function of upstream lithology. In this way, duricrusts can be useful indicators of paleo-flow patterns and hence of paleo-topography. Despite that Sauer et al. (2015) demonstrate that the cementing agents can change their mineralogy over time, they also illustrate that cement mineralogy can be used as an indicator of the paleohydrologic regime. Acknowledgments We would like to thank the authors for their contributions to this Special Issue and the referees for their precious work during the review process. We are indebted to Zhihong Xu (Editor-inChief, Journal of Soils and Sediments) and Moira Ledger (Editorial Manager) for their collaboration and help with the editing of these papers.

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