PEDOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE SOILS OF WADI EL-ASYUTI, EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT | ||||
| Fayoum Journal of Agricultural Research and Development | ||||
| Article 10, Volume 24, Issue 1, January 2010, Page 106-119 PDF (697.66 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Research articles. | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/fjard.2010.195661 | ||||
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| Author | ||||
| Samy A. Abd-Allah | ||||
| Soils, Water and Environ. Res. Institute. Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Wadi El-Asyuti is encompassing promising areas for the future projects of agricultural utilization, however, its soils are occupied an area of the Eastern Desert of Egypt. According to the aerial photo-interpretation technique, the identified main landforms could be assigned to five units, i.e., Wadi plain, Wadi bottom, Rubble terraces, Alluvial fan, River terraces and Rocky area. The developed soils on these units were investigated throughout ten representative soil profiles. The obtained results indicated that the studied soils are characterized by texture class varies of sandy-silty clay loam, CaCO3 content of 1.2-37.7 % and organic matter content of 0.05-0.61 %. Also, the soil salinity of the investigated soils ranged between non-saline to extremely-saline, soil pH tended to alkaline side, and soluble cations were generally categorized in an ascending order of Ca++ > Na- > Mg++ > K+ vs soluble anions of SO4-- ≥ C1, which were alternatively dominated and both exceed soluble HCO3-. Soils of coarse texture class have the highest soil bulk density values (Wadi plain and Rubble terraces soils), while the relatively fine texture soils (Alluvial fan and River terraces soils) have the lowest ones. On the contrary, soil total porosity values exhibited an opposite trend, the highest values were recorded in case of the fine soil texture and tended to decrease with increasing coarseness of soil texture. Also, the greatest values of hydraulic conductivity are associated with the soils of coarse texture class, and then decreased in the fine textured soils of alluvial fan and River terraces soils. In addition, available soil moisture range coincides very well with textural variations among soil profile layers. Moreover, the CEC values are more related with soil texture class, besides an exchangeable sodium percentage indicates that the studied soils are non-sodic. Statistical size parameters revealed that the studied soil sediments of Wadi El-Asyuti are mostly transported and deposited through an aqueous environment, and locally combined action of aqueous-aeolian media. With regard to the mineralogical composition of the studied soils, the obtained data showed that heavy minerals are detected as opaques, pyroxenes and amphiboles in high amounts. Also, the ultra stable minerals of zircon, garnet and rutile are present in relatively moderate amounts, while the remaining ones are detected in less pronounced amounts. The ratios of ultra stable minerals and weathering values indicate that soils of Wadi El-Asyuti are formed of either multi-origin or multi-depositional regime, due to the heterogeneity of the parent materials prior to inception to geogenetic weathering or resulted in from the geochemical weathering prevailed in the source sediments. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Soils of Wadi El-Asyuti; Statistical parameters; Eastern Desert Wadies; Ultra stable minerals & their ratios; weathering values | ||||
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