CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Fishback, L.; and King, R.H.
Date : 2000.
Title : Soil development in the High Arctic: Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada.
Publication : 30th International Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts, 2000. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder
Issue :
Page(s) : 60-61.
Abstract
High arctic soils, besides being extremely youthful, reflect a number of environmental factors, foremost among which is the prevailing hydrothermal regime and the presence of continuous permafrost. Locally, topography, parent materials, and a complex interplay between pedogenic, geomorphic and biologic processes, generally combine to produce a complex ill-defined soil mosaic. The Holocene raised beaches of the Truelove Lowland, however, yield insights into the specific effects of these environmental factors on soil development and provide an opportunity to model soil variability. The beaches, comprised of poorly sorted beach sands and gravel of mixed lithologies, provide a range of slope conditions, from the nearly level elevated beach ridge crests, to the gently sloping back- and foreslopes, that grade into low-lying meadows that often border freshwater ponds and lakes. The soils at these sites form a catena, in that they are related to the slope gradient and different soils occupy different positions on the slope. Regosolic Static Cryosols occur on the raised beach crests where the permafrost table is at its deepest. Brunisolic Eutric Static Cryosols have formed on the upper foreslopes and backslopes and further downslope, Brunisolic Eutric Turbic Cryosols are associated with a hummocky microtopography. At the foot of the slope, where the active layer is very shallow, waterlogged Gleysolic Turbic Cryosols are forming on a silty lacustrine substrate. Within the various slope zones, pedogenic processes interact with periglacial processes to produce microscale soil variability.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology