Classic ethnoscientific techniques were adapted to describe and analyze the knowledge of peasant potters about soils they use for making pottery in a rural village in the Agreste region, State of Paraiba, northeastern Brazil. Five soil profiles from pits where local people obtain pottery clay were formally described by researchers (etic approach) and by peasant artisans (emic approach). Samples collected during both the emic and etic approaches were used for the morphological and analytical soil characterization. The peasant potters were […]

This study reports on the use of GIS (Geographical Information System) tools for identifying and mapping landform units and soilscapes in a case study of a watershed in the region of Viçosa, Minas Gerais state, based on a topographical base map at a 1:50000 scale. Field work was undertaken to estimate the degree of accuracy of landform units / soilscape identification, obtaining an agreement of 72 % between the automatic and field work classification, and to correlate obtained soilscapes with dominant soil […]

Soil and geomorphic surfaces were studied on a sandstone/basalt hillslope segment, commonly found in the Jaboticabal region (NW São Paulo State). Main objectives were to relate the geomorphic surfaces with chemical, physical and mineralogical properties of Oxisols and to apply geostatistic methods as a helping tool for their automatic location. Soils were sampled at depths of 0.6 to 0.8 m (upper B-horizons) in a 1,700 m long transect at regular 25 m intervals, amounting to 109 sampling sites. Soil samples were analyzed for particle […]

Information Systems store detailed information on land resources, so that these can be accessed, combined, and analyzed for several purposes from different points of view. In Brazil, the information produced in soil surveys has not been efficiently made available, due to the great volume, complexity, and little standardization. Thus, with the objective of enabling the storage, manipulation, and disposal of information on Brazilian soils, the SigSolos System was developed. SigSolos was structured to allow the storage of information originated from […]

Soil color is widely recognized as a primary property of soil identification. Soil physical, mineralogical, and chemical properties can be derived from assessing soil color. The current framework of soil classification, at the second hierarquical level of the Brazilian System of Classification, requires that the soil colour of the diagnostic B horizon be determined by comparison with the Munsell color charts, or equivalent. This process of classification is extremely subjective and time-consuming, limiting the accuracy, transferability, and usefulness of the […]

The objective of this research was to determine a methodology for the use of spectral data obtained in the laboratory and from orbital images for the recognition and discrimination of three soil classes in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Reflectance data were obtained by a spectroradiometer/by Landsat 5 images in the laboratory as standards from soil samples of Oxisol, Ultisol, and Entisol profiles. Orbital data were converted to reflectance and classified by the Spectral Angle Mapper. The spectral curves obtained […]

In the Lakes Region of Rio de Janeiro State, the occurrence of a drier climate creates a peculiar environment where there is a trend of salinization and presence of xeric vegetation. Physical, chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological properties were studied in selected soil transects. The soils are eutrophic as result of nutrient cycling, low weathering degree, and presence of primary minerals with nutrient reserves in their composition. The occurrence of well developed eutrophic soils (Oxisols) under caatinga (xeromorphic vegetation) on the […]

The objective of the present study was to characterize the mineralogy and micromorphology of soils with stagnic properties from the micro region of Araripina, in the Sertão Zone of Pernambuco State aiming to improve the understanding of their properties and pedogenic processes. Up to now, these soils have been poorly studied. They are characterized by the presence of a solodic or natric B horizon underlying a normal argic B horizon. Three representative soil profiles were selected in Ouricuri County. According […]

The macro and micromorphological characteristics of the surface and subsurface diagnostic horizons of Oxisols and Quartzipsamments of the South American and Velhas geomorphic surfaces were analyzed in profiles under native vegetation cover, in order to establish a reference for future comparisons with similar areas under ongoing human intervention. The soils in their respective subregions and geomorphic surfaces were classified in three groups: Group 1: hypo to mesoferric, clayey to very clayey soils; Group 2: hypoferric; sandy to sandy loam soils, and Group 3: […]

This study defines some aspects of superficial alteration processes and their reflexes on the Quaternary pedogeomorphology in the sub-basin of the upper Maracujá River, in the Complexo Bação, ferriferous zone, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Characteristics related to the dynamic evolution of three gneiss-underlayered toposequences (1, 2, and 3) at different erosion stages were investigated. In the top slope segments of the toposequences 1 and 2 the soil profiles are little developed and present an in situ evolution. In toposequence 3, […]