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Solonetz Soils of Eastern South Dakota: Their Properties and Genesis¹

ABSTRACT

Two aspects of the genesis of Solonetz soils were considered in this study: the specific environment of solonization, and the changes in soil constituents and in soil volume which take place as a result of solonization.

Field and laboratory studies were made on a Solonetz and a zonal soil from the James Basin. Heavy mineral data related the soil profiles to their parent materials and provided an independent reference for judging volume changes due to soil formation.

Both the Solonetz and Chernozem soil developed from parent material which is saline and sodium-rich. The solonetz soil developed in an environment having alternate periods of ponding and desiccation; the Chernozem in an environment of uninterrupted good drainage.

A unit volume of the parent material of both the Solonetz and Chernozem soils contains a greater weight of most soil constituents than is present in the volume of B horizon to which it gives rise.

A reduction in volume of the parent material accompanies solonization so that depressions containing Solonetz soils would continue to deepen. Rather than developing into zonal soils, it is believed that Solods remain depressional soils in their moisture relations and morphology.

¹ Journal Paper No. 289, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, S. Dak. A portion of the data presented herein was contained in a thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy. Presented before Division V, Soil Science Society of America, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 18, 1952.

² Associate Professor of Agronomy, South Dakota State College, College Station, South Dakota. Appreciation is expressed to Prof. R. J. Muckenhirn, Soils Department, University of Wisconsin, under whose general supervision this work was done. Appreciation is also extended to Dr. J. R. McHenry of the U.S.D.A. Soils Laboratory at Mandan, N. Dak., for some of the analytical data used in this paper.

Received for publication January 28, 1953.