Soil Horizons An Inverted Horizon Soilscape in Wisconsin

Relationships between soils and their position in the landscape have been well established in most parts of the world. Such relationships are useful when mapping soils and geographically identifying soil classes based on a set of diagnostic soil characteristics and horizons. Human infl uence may alter the pattern, and here we report on a series of soilscapes in Wisconsin, USA that have been strongly infl uenced by soil erosion. The soils are mostly formed in loess over glacial outwash and are classifi ed as Typic Eutrocrepts and Aquollic Hapludalfs on the upper slopes and Endoaquolls in the lower part of the soilscape. Due to soil erosion the present soil surface horizons in the higher part of the soilscape are former Bw (cambic) horizon material, lower soilscape surface horizons are formed in former E horizon material, and in the lowest portion of the soilscape thick dark colored surface horizons have resulted from the accumulation of Ap horizon material eroded from the higher portions of the soilscape. This appears as an inverted horizon soilscape. Peer Reviewed Papers