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Soil evolution and development of the clay mineral assemblages of a Podzol and a Cambisol in ‘Meggerwald’, Switzerland

¹ Department of Physical Geography, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland, ² Institute of Clay Mineralogy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland, and ³ Istituto Sperimentale per lo Studio e la Difesa del Suolo, Piazza D’Azeglio 30, 50121 Firenze, Italy

^* E-mail: megli{at}geo.unizh.ch

(Received 24 July 2001; revised 26 October 2001)

Two soils, a haplic Podzol and a dystric Cambisol, developed from post-glacial tills, were studied with respect to their soil chemistry and clay mineralogy. Although the state factors (age, geology, topography, climate) of soil formation were almost identical, two different types developed. The E horizon of the Podzol contained more smectite, characterized by a montmorillonite-beidellite-mixed phase. The neoformation of smectite could be traced back to the weathering of mica and chlorite. The Podzol had less hydroxy-interlayered smectite (HIS) in the surface horizons than the Cambisol. A larger amount of chelating compounds in the E horizon of the Podzol either transformed HIS into smectites or inhibited the formation of HIS and favoured the formation of smectites. The physical structure of the soil material is believed to be the most important factor in the different modes of soil evolution. The greater abundance of coarse pores in the topsoil at the Podzol site probably led to a faster eluviation of base cations, a different vegetation at ground level, and, consequently, to a faster soil evolution with the formation of spodic horizons.

KEYWORDS: smectite, beidellite, montmorillonite, soil formation, soil physics

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