Catena (soil)

A Catena in soil science (pedology) is a series of distinct but co-evolving soils

arrayed a slope.[5] Each soil type or "facet" differs somewhat from its
neighbours, but all occur in the same climate and on the same underlying
parent material. A mature catena is in equilibrium as the processes of
deposition and erosion are in balance.

The catena concept[edit]

The catena concept originated in Central Uganda, by chemist W.S. Martin [3]
to describe a hill slope sequence at the Bukalasa research station. The term
catena (Latin: chain) was first coined by scientist Geoffrey Milne to describe
these soil-topography units. The concept of a catena was developed in order
to analyze the regular variation of soils across a slope. The example of this
approach consists first in a structural component, the recurring pattern of
certain soils in a landscape transects in which every chain element has its
place in the chain, a soil has it in a landscape.

Formation[edit]
The term soil catena is used to describe the lateral variation in soils over a
hillslope. [2][9] A slope can be broken into sections known as a ridge, crest,
midslope, and toeslope. The ridge or hilltop tends to accumulate organic
matter that allows formation of an adequate thickness of soil. Steeper slope or
crest sections tend to be freely drained, while at the bottom of slopes or
toeslopes there is usually higher in moisture content due to poor drainage.[7]
Toeslope soils are not only higher in moisture content, but are also known to
be richer in clay and organic matter.[2]
Lithology and relief can be the primary controls on the development of certain
catenas [4] with easily disaggregated parent rock and high relief favoring
particle redistribution and therefore the formation of distinct soils in particle-
source and particle-deposition zones along a slope.[8]
Catenas can also develop on low relief hillslopes, but because less potential
energy is available the redistribution of mass can be dominated by subsurface
flow of plasma, a combination of dissolved and suspended solids in soil
water.[1][6][8]

Open system[edit]

A catena is a sequence of soils down a slope, created by the balance of

processes such as precipitation, infiltration and runoff.

Gullies in wet peaty soil in Scotland show where water has run off, before
sinking into deeper soils at the bottom of the catena.
A catena forms when the climate, includingprecipitation and evaporation, is
the same for the whole slope, and when sufficient time has passed for
equilibrium to be reached between the processes that bring materials in to a
facet and the processes that take materials away. The result is a predictable
sequence of soil facets.[1] A catena is thus an open systemwhich has
continuous input and output processes. On a steeper slope in the middle of a
catena, erosion, such as by runoff, is faster, so facets are typically thinner and
drier. Conversely, on a shallower slope at the top or bottom of a catena, soils
are thicker and deeper. In addition, the top facets lose materials such as
mineral salts when these are washed out by rain (eluviation), while the bottom
facets gain materials when these are washed in (illuviation).[1][2]
A catena can form on various underlying or parent materials and in
different climates.[1] On impermeable acid rocks such
asmetamorphic schists in a high rainfall climate like that of Western Scotland,
the catena consists of thick acidic peat forming wetbog on the flatter facets,
and thinner, drier, somewhat less acidic peaty podsols on the steeper facets.
Thus the soil depth, acidity (pH) and soil moisture vary continuously along the
slope.[1][2] On a permeable basic rock such as chalk, the catena may consist of
thick brown earths on the flatter facets, with thin rendzinas on the steeper
slopes, while the valley bottom may include alkaline fen peat or river alluvium.

Importance[edit]
The importance of a catena is the variation of soils across a small area such
as a slope. Understanding the soils that make up a catena could facilitate the
mapping of soils across a given region.
Many fields of study are taken into consideration when studying catenas,
studying catenas could help to understand the influence of soil hydrology on
soil formation.
Catenas are found to be a great location for the study of soil science, given
that the catena concept focuses on past history of the land surface,
on hydrology, erosion, sediment transport, and pedogenic processes.

References[edit]

1. Bern, C.R., Chadwick, O.A., 2010. Quantifying colloid mass

redistribution in soils and other physical mass transfers. In: Birkle, P.,
Torres-Alvarado, I.S. (Eds.), Water Rock Interaction. CRC Press,
Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp. 765768.
2. Birkeland, P,W. 1984. Soils and Geomomholo~.Oxford University
Press, NY.
3. Brown, David J., Murray K. Clayton, and Kevin Mcsweeney. "Potential
Terrain Controls on Soil Color, Texture Contrast and
4. Conacher, A.J., Dalrymple, J.B., 1977. 9 unit land-surface model:
approach to pedogeomorphic research. Geoderma 18 (12), 1154.
5. Khomo, Carleton R. Bern , Anthony S. Hartshorn , Kevin H. Rogers ,
Oliver A. Chadwick Chemical transfers along slowly eroding catenas
developed on granitic cratons in southern Africa Lesego