Formation and degradation of textural pedofeatures in soils of ancient tropical coastal plains in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Textural features in soils are defined as having a distinct granulometric composition compared to the surrounding groundmass. Among these, clay coatings are found in various pedo-environments, covering a range of climatic conditions, from wetter regions to semiarid areas. This study aimed to understand how textural features in ancient coastal plain soils can reveal mechanisms of their pedogenetic evolution and how this relates to environmental transformations. Three soil profiles were studied at different points in a toposequence, representing the upper, middle, and lower thirds. The study area is located in the municipality of Seropédica, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Morphological, physical, chemical, mineralogical, and micromorphological analyses were conducted on the selected profiles. Acrisols, formed in free-draining conditions, were later transformed into Planosols due to base level oscillation and the percolation of brackish solutions through the soils. The pedogenetic model proposed in this study involves the following stages: i) Clay formation by in situ mineral weathering, mainly of phyllosilicates, with pseudomorphization of the structures. ii) Destruction of the pseudomorphized structures by pedoplasmation with proximal migration of clay and genesis of textural features of coating and filling. iii) Partial and episodic saturation of the base of the profile with solutions enriched in sodium of a fluvial-marine nature. iv) Dispersion of the clays, leading to the destruction of the textural features and soil micromass, accompanied by relative sand enrichment and E horizon formation. v) Local lowering of the surface and smoothing of the base of the slopes. This transformation model is unprecedented for the southeastern region of Brazil, increasing the evolutionary complexity of soil genesis in areas of ancient fluvial-marine plains.