Abstract
Mapping of the pH of surface soils for Queensland showed acidity was extensive and indicated a trend for lower pH values to be associated with higher rainfall areas. The indicated pH-rainfall trend was further investigated by dividing Queensland into five zones using rainfall isohyets and into tropical and subtropical regions.
Based on 7650 surface soil pHw (1:5 soil:deionised water) values from a database, highly significant (F = 850; p>0.001) differences in pHw were found to occur among the five rainfall zones, with a consistent increase in acidity with increasing rainfall. Some of this trend can be attributed to areal occurrence and distribution of soil types. For example Inceptisols, Oxisols and Spodosols only occur in the higher rainfall areas and are mainly medium to strongly acid. However, a major finding is that most individual soil orders have significant differences in mean pHw between rainfall zones, implicating a rainfall influence on soil pH, even within soil orders.
Additionally, tropical soils are significantly (F = 206; p>0.001) more acid than subtropical ones, although this trend is not consistent for all soil orders. Thus, climate is shown to influence the pH of surface soils in Queensland.
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References
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Ahern, C.R., Weinand, M.M.G. (1995). Does climate influence the pH of Queensland surface soils?. In: Date, R.A., Grundon, N.J., Rayment, G.E., Probert, M.E. (eds) Plant-Soil Interactions at Low pH: Principles and Management. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 64. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0221-6_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0221-6_22
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