Reference soil Niger 02: Arenosol

NE002

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 NE002: Arenosol

Classification

WRB 2014

Arenosol

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
0-17	0	0	4	23.1	51.9	15	94	1.2	1	2.2	3.7
17-28	0	0	4.3	22.5	45.1	18.3	90.2	2.5	0.2	2.7	6.9
28-40	0	0.3	4.9	26.6	45.1	11.5	88.4	1.7	0.5	2.2	9.2
40-60	0	0	4.1	22.6	44.2	17.6	88.5	1.7	0.5	2.2	9.2
60-90	0	0.1	5	26.2	46	11.1	88.4	2.2	0.7	2.9	8.7
90-118	0	0	3.4	21.6	43	19.9	87.9	2.7	0.5	3.2	8.9

Water retention characteristics

Depth (cm)	Bulk density kg/dm³	Spec. Surf. Area m²/g	COLE cm/cm	Water disp. clay %	Clay % w/w
0-17	1.57	-	-	-	3.7
17-28	-	-	-	-	6.9
28-40	1.53	-	-	-	9.2
40-60	-	-	-	-	9.2
60-90	1.54	-	-	-	8.7
90-118	-	-	-	-	8.9

Other physical data

Depth (cm)	Bulk density kg/dm³	pF 0 % v/v	pF 1.0 % v/v	pF 1.5 % v/v	pF 2.0 % v/v	pF 2.3 % v/v	pF 2.7 % v/v	pF 3.4 % v/v	pF 4.2 % v/v
0-17	1.57	35.8	32.7	20	10	6	5.3	2.5	2
28-40	1.53	39.1	37.1	27	10.2	9.1	7.2	4.4	4
60-90	1.54	34.8	33.2	27.8	10.6	7.1	5.5	4.3	4

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
0-17	4.6	4.3	0.1	-	0.24	-	-	0.2	0	0.6	0.2	0.2	0.0	1
17-28	4.7	4.1	0.04	-	0.15	-	-	0.4	0.2	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.0	0.8
28-40	4.7	4.1	0.03	-	0.15	-	-	0.6	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.0	0.6
40-60	4.5	4.1	0.02	-	0.07	-	-	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.7
60-90	4.5	4.2	0.01	-	0.10	-	-	0.3	0.2	0.0	0.2	0	0.0	0.2
90-118	4.7	4.4	0.02	-	0.07	-	-	0.2	0	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.5

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 %
0-17	63	1.6	43	0.8	-	0	-
17-28	67	1.2	17	0.5	-	17	-
28-40	26	2.3	25	0.5	-	9	-
40-60	44	1.6	17	0.2	-	25	-
60-90	40	0.5	6	0.4	-	40	-
90-118	100	0.5	6	0.2	-	0	-

Clay mineralogy

Depth (cm)	Chlorite	Feldspar	Gibbsite	Goethite	Halloysite	Hematite	Kaolinite	Mica / illite	Mixed-layer	Quartz	Smec	Vermiculite
0-17	-	-	-	very weak	-	-	strong	weak	-	very weak to weak	-	-
28-40	-	-	-	very weak	-	-	strong to very strong	very weak to weak	-	very weak	-	-
60-90	-	-	-	very weak	-	-	very strong	very weak	-	very weak	-	-

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Reference soil Niger 02: Arenosol

Characteristics

Reference soil NE002: Arenosol

Classification