The

Kilian Salas, Simone; Meurer, Katharina H. E.; Boy, Diana; Diaz Garcia, Elisa; Woche, Susanne K.; Boy, Jens; Guggenberger, Georg; Peth, Stephan; Schroeder, Paul. A.; Jungkunst, Hermann F.

doi:10.1002/jpln.202400090

Research article2024Peer reviewedOpen access

The "extra pinch" of pseudosand to enhance tropical biogeochemical processes understanding

Kilian Salas, Simone; Meurer, Katharina H. E.; Boy, Diana; Diaz Garcia, Elisa; Woche, Susanne K.; Boy, Jens; Guggenberger, Georg; Peth, Stephan; Schroeder, Paul. A.; Jungkunst, Hermann F.

Abstract

Despite knowing better, water-stable aggregates like pseudosands are still disintegrated into their clay- and silt-sized bits and pieces to serve standardization in texture determination. Lacking yet a viable alternative, this deliberately committed mistake seems the contemporary best practice for modeling purposes, which is far from being ideal. Here, we propose this misconception to be a major cause for flawed process understanding of tropical soils, leading to substantial uncertainties in model development. There is enough evidence as to why pseudosands are neither sand nor the plain sum of their clay- and silt-sized units and should therefore better be defined as an additional soil texture class for which properties have yet to be examined across the tropics.

Keywords

sand; texture; tropical soils; water-stable aggregates

Published in

Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science
2024, volume: 187, number: 2, pages: 161-170
Publisher: WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

SLU Authors

Meurer, Katharina
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science

Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202400090

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/129289