CLIMATIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC RELATIONS OF 3 GREAT-PLAINS SOILS .1. SOIL MORPHOLOGY

Understanding the relationships of climate and topography with certain soil morphological properties may provide useful information for assessing climatic and topographic interactions on soil C, N, and P. Soil profits were sampled on summit, shoulder, backslope, and footslope positions in three climatic zones of the semiarid central Great Plains characterized by 395, 444, and 514mm of mean annual precipitation and 10.8, 10.7, and 11.5°C mean anuual temperature, respectively. Sites were selected on the basis of similarity for parent material, rangeland management, slope, and aspect. While effective precipitation may increase from the summit to lower landscape positions, these observations may also reflect hillslope erosional history or the importance of subsurface lateral flow. -from Authors