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Soil Morphology and Genesis at Higher Elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains¹

ABSTRACT

Properties of soils representative of the elevation from 4,500 to 6,600 feet in the Smokies along the North Carolina-Tennessee border are reported.

Mean annual rainfall exceeds 80 inches. Mean air temperatures are: annual 45° to 49°F.; January, 31° to 35°F., July, 59° to 63°F. Parent rock is feldspathic sandstone and conglomerate. These soils can be placed in two groups: (1) lacking A₂ horizons with thin A₁ and "color B" horizons, and (2) with A₂ horizons, B_ir horizons, and relatively thick mor layers. Soils of the first group ordinarily occupy well-drained sites under spruce-fir forest. Those of the second group occupy less well-drained sites under heath bald or rhododendron understory of sprucefir, with some indication that they tend to form from more quartzose conglomeratic rock.

Soils of the first group are ascribed to the Sol Brun Acide great soil group on the basis of very low base status and high exchangeable Al, C/N levels, lack of relative accumulation of free iron and of layer silicates, and lack of A₂ horizons. Second group soils are excluded from the Sol Brun Acide group, due to the presence of A₂ horizons, differential iron accumulation, and C/N levels, and are interpreted as Podzols.

Possible mechanisms are proposed to account for contrasting properties of the Sol Brun Acide and Podzol soils described, and the anomalous absence of A₂ in the Sol Brun Acide of the Smokies. Extreme acid hydrolysis, producing intergradational three-layer silicates plus kaolinite and gibbsite weathering end products, is postulated for these soils.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the North Carolina Agr. Exp. Sta., Raleigh, as paper No. 1293 in the Journal Series. Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory, The University of Tennessee, n. ser. 219. Presented before Div. V., Soil Science Society of America, Aug. 5, 1958, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.

² Associate Professor of Soils, North Carolina State College; Professor of Botany, University of Tennessee; and Research Assoc., Botany Department, University of Tennessee, respectively.

Received for publication March 20, 1961. Accepted for publication January 17, 1962.