Polycyclic soils with Bt and Bw developed on mafic rocks in a forest cerrado transition environment in Roraima, northern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract

In the extreme north of Brazil, in Roraima, there is an important set of mafic, volcanic or plutonic rocks, associated with the Juro-Cretaceous magmatism, and one of the most extensive areas is the Colônia do Taiano region, the first agricultural colony of Roraima. In addition to basalts, many diabases and diorites occur, forming an extensive patch of soils with good agricultural suitability, in the cerrado-forest transition. Two soil profiles developed from diabase were studied, after selecting the most representative pedons of the area. P1, an Argissolo Vermelho Eutrófico latossólico (Ultisol) and P2 an Argissolo Vermelho Eutrófico típico (Ultisol), were described and collected. Morphological, physical, chemical, mineralogical analyses, and extraction of Fe, Al, Ti and Si oxides by sulfuric attack were carried out; Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃, TiO₂, and SiO₂, by plasma emission spectrometry; and Fe-DBC (dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate) and Fe ammonium oxalate. The soils presented a typical latosolic morphology at the base of the profile, with the top of the B horizon showing waxiness varying from moderate to abundant, thus revealing a polycyclic genesis of Bt superimposed on Bw, formed in a previous cycle. The SiO₂ contents indicated a desilication process, and the low contents of trace elements and TiO₂ showed mafic materials poor in magnetite, and reworking of the parent material by pediment in a drier climate. The Feo/Fed ratio proved to be atypical for the Amazon region, consistent with the mafic lithology.