Arctic and Alpine Soils Essay -- Argriculture Research Papers

Arctic and Alpine Soils Proposal (Ant)arctic (high-latitude) and alpine (mountain) areas are affected by relatively similar climates, as latitude and altitude produce similar meteorologic effects. In these geographic regions where temperature is at such a pronounced extreme, climate would seem to be the leading factor of soil development. It is my goal in this research paper to answer the following question: How do the soils of arctic and alpine areas differ? This idea, taken largely from an abstract by Birkeland (1975), will be explored through the comparison of the soils of these two geographic regions, and an analysis of the soil development factors in those environments. Introduction Both high-latitude and high-altitude regions are subject to climates that are dominated by extreme cold for at least part of the year. This extreme characteristic creates within these regions a stark environmental contrast to most other geographic regions of Earth, pairing with climate a different and uncommon set of geomorphologic features on the thin surficial layer of the planet. Dokuchaev (1886 & ca. 1900; and 1899, as quoted by Afanasiev (1927); and Gerasimov (1956), respectively) made progressive early studies in soil science in the Caucausus Mountains and in Arctic Russia and applied a theory that drew an analog between vertical and horizontal zonality. He observed that biota and temperature changed drastically at increasing elevations in much the way that the same characteristics vary with increasing latitude. Dokuchaev then extrapolated that the variation in biota and temperature would also indicate similar changes in soil types, but did so without sufficient observed suppor t. While this hypothesis was a brilliant step in ea... ... problem. Biul. Peryglacjalny (Lodz) 22:285--294. _______. 1973b. Soils of the polar region of North America. Biul. Peryglacjalny (Lodz), 23:157-165. _______. 1977. Soils of the Polar Landscapes Rutgers, the State university of New Jersey. 637 pp. Tedrow, J. C. F. et al. 1958. Major genetic soils of the Arctic Slope of Alaska. J. Soil Sci. 9:33-45. Ugolini, F. C. and Tedrow, J. C. F. 1963. Soils of the Brooks Range, Alaska 3: Rendzina of the arctic. Soil Sci. 96:121-127. Walton, G. F. 1972. The high arctic environment and Polar desert soils. Ph.D. thesis, Rutgers University. 479 pp. Williams, P. J. 1957. The direct recording of solifluction movements. Amer. J. Sci., 257:481-490. Zakharov, S. A. 1927. Achievements of Russian science in morphology of soils. Russian Pedological Investigations, Soviet Acad. Sci. (Leningrad), Chap. 2 (47 pp.).