PERIODICAL AND APERIODICAL CHANGES OF PROPERTIES OF YOUNG MARSHLAND SOILS SEAWARDS THE DIKE

The changes of properties of young marshland soils searwards the dike were investigated (1.) throughout the year, (2.) after storm tides, long drought Periods and intensive rainfalls, and (3.) In the course f the low-high tide cycle. -In each case the relative cation distribution of the saturation extract remained constant. The relative distribution of the mobile cations remained also constant within the low-high tide cycle. while it shows fluctuations with a deviation of up to 16 % from the mean Na-content within the oneyear investigation and up to 28 % after extreme climatic or storm tide conditions. The annual salt fluctuations were determined to be at least 60-80 %. The deviations from the mean salt content were at least 100 % after storm tides and long drought periods (extreme deviation of 370 % within the first 1-3 cm soil) and partly also after heavy rain. The redox conditions remained constant within the low-high tide cycle, whereas they differed to a small extent following extreme climatic or storm tide conditions. With values of 0.4-0.9 the soils showed a small spectrum of different Ca/Mg ratios. Moreover, the determined annual fluctuation of the Ca/Mg ratios showed that the Ca/Mg ratio is not a suitable classification criterion.