MICROMORPHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF CULTIVATED GRAY LUVISOLS UNDER DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

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Abstract
Research on cultivated and uncultivated Gray Luvisols at the Breton Plots was conducted to determine the effects of management practices on soil fabric arrangements. Soil fabrics were readily classified into two dominant groupings: the granic sequence for cultivated layers and upper solum of uncultivated soil and the fragmic sequence for Bt horizons. Mullgranic and humigranic sequences were also characteristic of pedotubules in all horizons examined. The investigations showed that tillage practices play a much larger role in determining fabric arrangements than do fertilizer treatments, within and among f-members best classified as crumbs and clods. However, clods, crumbs and crusts of cultivated layers were frequently found to comprise basic granic units (approximately 150–200 μm) which expressed a variable degree of granularity. The granules were most discrete and strongly developed in plots receiving organic fertilizer and where grasses and cereals were grown in rotation; their plasma fabric also showed a weak mull component. While the exact genetic origin of the granules is unknown, it appeared that soil fauna were at least in part responsible for their formation.
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