The Effect of Topography and Irrigation on Soil Development and Clay Mineral Diversity of Khuzestan's Gypsic Soils

Abstract

This study was done to evaluate the effect of topography, water table, and irrigation on gypsc soil development and clay mineral diversity in Ram-Hormuz Plain, Khuzestan Province. To localize, 10 profiles in this region that covered all purpose irrigation and topography situation were described. The results showed that the soils could be classified in Entisols, Inceptisols and Aridisols orders. All soil epipedons were ochric and subsurface horizons were cambic, gypsic, and salic. The salic horizons were formed under a low water table. The XRD results showed that smectite, kaolinite, illite, chlorite, palygorskite, vermiculite and sepiolite were the dominant minerals, respectively. Kaolinite and illite were inherited from the parent material, but chlorite was the result of both inheritance and transformation of other clay minerals except uncultivated or non-irrigated soils. Sepiolite was decreased in gypsic horizons, but palygorskite was increased in these horizons. Sepiolite was raised with increasing the depth under the good drainage class; this could be related to neoformation, but it was decreased with depth under the weak drainage class. These results could be due to the instability of this mineral in high moisture and its low Mg activity. There was also a negative correlation correlation between Palygorskite and smectite; this was such that most palygorskite was observed in the surface horizons, but smectite was in the subsurface. Smectite was the dominant clay mineral in the studied soils; it was formed from the weathering of other minerals as well as from neoformed ones in the lowlands. Vermiculite was formed in these soils due to k depletion by leaching or plant absorption. This happened in the illite to smectite transformation process. Therefore, topography and irrigation could be regarded as the main factors putting these soils in high category; also, clay mineral assemblage was different under this situation in these soils.