Reference soil Malaysia 55: Arenosol

MY055

Arenosols occur over large areas in Africa, central and western Australia, the Middle East and central China. Smaller areas are found along coastlines all over the world.

Characteristics

Soils with a loamy sand or coarser texture either to a depth of at least 100 cm from the soil surface, or to a (petro-)plinthic or salic horizon between 50 and 100 cm from the soil surface. They contain less than 35 percent (by volume) rock fragments or other coarse fragments within 100 cm from the soil surface and have no diagnostic horizons other than an ochric, yermic or albic horizon, a (petro-)plinthic or salic horizon below 50 cm from the soil surface, or an argic or spodic horizon below 200 cm below the soil surface.

Distribution of Arenosols (rough estimation supplied by soilgrids)

Reference soil MY055: Arenosol

An immature, somewhat excessively drained, recent alluvial soil, 5o cm above high tide level, gently sloping (2-6 %) landinwards, derived from adamellite (biotite granite and granodiorite), subordinately from greenstones, sandstones and metamorphic rock types. The various depositions are detected through differences in mineralogy, shell content and root distribution: The AC contains shell fragments and pieces of charcoal; the C2 magnetite and ilmenite deposits; the C3 a lot of shell debris in coarse sand fraction, and the C4 some large shell pieces. Only that part of the Siru series not influenced by sea water during king tide can be used for agriculture. Coconut is the only crop well adapted to the special coastal environment. (additional climatic data: days with precipitation > 0,1 mm) * casuarina sumatrana

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Physical characteristics

Particle size distribution

Depth (cm)	Gravel % v/v	very coarse sand % w/w	coarse sand % w/w	medium sand % w/w	fine sand % w/w	very fine sand % w/w	Total sand % w/w	coarse silt % w/w	fine silt % w/w	Total silt % w/w	Clay % w/w
0-18	-	0	0.1	0.8	93.3	4	98.2	0.7	0	0.7	1.1
18-45	-	0	0	1.1	85	12.9	99	1	0	1	0.9
45-75	-	0	0	0.3	93	5	98.3	0.5	0	0.5	1.2
75-92	-	0	0.1	0.2	94.2	2.4	96.9	0.8	0	0.8	1.4
100-120	-	0	0	0.8	94.2	3.3	98.3	0.4	0	0.4	1.3

Water retention characteristics

Depth (cm)	Bulk density kg/dm³	Spec. Surf. Area m²/g	COLE cm/cm	Water disp. clay %	Clay % w/w
0-18	-	-	-	-	1.1
18-45	-	-	-	-	0.9
45-75	-	-	-	-	1.2
75-92	-	-	-	-	1.4
100-120	-	-	-	-	1.3

Chemical data

Depth (cm)	pH H2O	pHKCl	EC 1: 2.5 dS/m	CaCO3 % w/w	C % w/w	N %	C / N	Exch. Acid cmol(c)/kg	Exch. Al cmol(c)/kg	Ca cmol(c)/kg	Mg cmol(c)/kg	K cmol(c)/kg	Na cmol(c)/kg	Sum Cations cmol(c)/kg
0-18	8.3	8.1	0.17	4.5	0.16	0.02	8	-	-	7.3	0.8	0	0.1	8.2
18-45	8.6	8.3	0.1	4.9	0.04	0.01	4	-	-	8.0	0.8	0	0.1	8.9
45-75	8.6	8.4	0.09	3.7	0.13	0.01	13	-	-	5.8	0.6	0	0.0	6.4
75-92	8.8	8.6	0.1	13.5	0.07	0.01	7	-	-	9.0	0.9	0	0.1	10
100-120	8.8	8.6	0.12	6.7	0.01	0.01	1	-	-	7.5	0.9	0	0.0	8.4

Depth (cm)	Base sat. %	CEC soil cmol(c)/kg	CEC clay cmol(c)/kg	CEC org cmol(c)/kg	ECEC cmol(c)/kg	Al sat. %	ESP %
0-18	-	2.2	200	0.6	-	-	-
18-45	-	1.8	200	0.1	-	-	-
45-75	-	1.3	108	0.5	-	-	-
75-92	-	1.1	79	0.2	-	-	-
100-120	-	1.1	85	-	-	-	-

Depth (cm)	pH NaF	P Retention %	ODOE	Al o % w/w	Si o % w/w	Fe d % w/w	Al d % w/w	Fe p % w/w	Al p % w/w	C p % w/w	Fe o % w/w
0-18	-	-	-	-	-	1	0	-	-	-	-
18-45	-	-	-	-	-	0.9	0	-	-	-	-
45-75	-	-	-	-	-	1.1	0	-	-	-	-
75-92	-	-	-	-	-	0.9	0	-	-	-	-
100-120	-	-	-	-	-	0.9	0	-	-	-	-

Elemental composition of the soil

Depth (cm)	Al2O3 % w/w	CaO % w/w	Fe2O3 % w/w	K2O % w/w	MgO % w/w	Na2O % w/w	SiO2 % w/w	TiO2 % w/w
0-18	1.1	1.93	2.9	0.16	0.5	-	91.3	0.74
18-45	1.2	2.72	2.5	0.19	0.48	-	90.3	0.54
45-75	1.1	2.36	2.6	0.18	0.49	-	92.0	0.51
75-92	1.2	6.52	2.2	0.24	0.68	-	84.6	0.11
100-120	1.2	3.53	2.5	0.19	0.61	-	89.6	0.28

Depth (cm)	Al2O3/Fe2O3 mol/mol	LOI % w/w	MnO2 % w/w	P2O5 % w/w	SiO2 / Al2O3 mol/mol	SiO2/Fe2O3 mol/mol	SiO2 / R mol/mol
0-18	0.6	2.9	0.06	0.04	140.9	83.8	52.5
18-45	0.8	3.0	0.05	0.02	127.7	96.2	54.9
45-75	0.7	2.4	0.05	0.03	141.9	94.2	56.6
75-92	0.9	6.2	0.05	0.03	119.7	102.4	55.2
100-120	0.8	3.7	0.04	0.03	126.7	95.4	54.4

Profile description

C1 18-45 cm	yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, moist)yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, moist),fine sand,fine sand,weak crumb,weak crumb,loose very friable,loose very friable,gradual smooth boundary to,abrupt smooth boundary to,
C2 45-75 cm	yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, moist)fine sand,weak crumb,loose very friable,abrupt smooth boundary to,
C3 75-92 cm	yellowish brown (10YR 5/4, moist)fine sand,weak crumb,loose very friable,abrupt boundary to,
C4 92-120 cm	(dark) brown (10YR 4/3, moist)medium sand,structureless,non sticky non plastic,

Kind 1 (parent material) ; Parker (eds), 1984	coarse-grained acid igneous rock
Mode of accumulation or deposition of parent material	fluvial
Remarks on Parent Materials	adamellite

Remarks on Land Use / Vegetation	Beach pioneer vegetation *
Status of vegetation; Guidelines for soil description - Fourth edition (FAO, Rome, 2006)	primary

Altitude	0m
Physiographic Unit	beach
Regional landform; McDonald, R.C., Isbell, R.F. et all, 1984; Australian soil and land survey Field Handbook, Inkata Press, Melbourne.	beach ridge
Slope	0%
Topography; Guidelines for soil description - Fourth edition (FAO, Rome, 2006)	undulating

Drainage class ; FAO (2006) - Guidelines for soil description	somewhat excessive
Depth to groundwater table	120cm
Moist From - To	0-92cm
Wet From To	92cm

Evidence of alkali ; Soil Survey Manual USDA, 1951	non-alkaline
Rock outcrop class (FAO (2006) - Guidelines for soil description)	none
Evidence of salt; Soil Survey Manual USDA, 1951	non-saline
Surface stoniness class (FAO (2006) - Guidelines for soil description)	none

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Reference soil Malaysia 55: Arenosol

Characteristics

Reference soil MY055: Arenosol

Classification