Soil Macrofauna especially insects have been recognized as being an important factor in regulating soil processes and thereby the soil profde development. The influence of earthworms is well ...documented and it is the dominant member of the soil macrofauna influencing the soil formation processes in the temperate zone. In the tropics, termites and ants play the major role in the nutrient recycling and the movement and transportation of soil material. This paper describes the influence of termites on the soil formation in the tropical wet semi-deciduous forest in Ghana at the north coast of the Gulf of Guinea. The termites form distinct soil horizons especially at the summits of the landscapes where gravel free soil horizons are formed upon gravel rich horizons, and in some cases soil heaps are formed after the decomposition of huge trees.
Excavations of Danish burial mounds dated to the South Scandinavian Early Bronze Age (1700–1000 BC) occasionally show thin iron pans encapsulating the interior of the mounds. When strongly cemented ...these pans can be classified as placic horizons. The encapsulated core was often wet and anaerobic and in Jutland well-preserved oaken log coffins with remnants of organic artefacts and human beings were discovered. Various theories for the development of these pans have been proposed. The chemical composition of the cement of two iron pans in burial mounds is compared with that from a bog iron deposit and a spodic horizon. This shows that the cement from the iron pans is similar to that in bog iron and not to the spodic material.
A database containing about 800 soil profiles located in a 7-km grid covering Denmark has been used to develop a set of regression equations of soil water content at pressure heads -1, -10, -100 and ...-1500 kPa versus particle size distribution, organic matter, CaCO sub(3) and bulk density. One purpose was to elaborate equations based on soil parameters available in the Danish Soil Classification's texture database of particle size distribution and organic matter. It was also tested to see if inclusion of bulk density or CaCO sub(3) content (in CaCO sub(3)-containing samples) as predictors or grouping in surface and subsurface horizons or textural classes improved the regression equations. Compared to existing Danish equations based on much fewer observations the accuracies of the new equations were better. The equations also predicted the soil water content at the measured pressure heads more accurately than the pedotransfer functions developed in HYPRES (Hydraulic Properties of European Soils). Introducing bulk density as a predictor improved the equation for the pressure head of -1 kPa but not for the lower ones. The grouping of data sets in surface and subsurface horizons or in textural classes did not improve the equations. Based on the equations a set of van Genuchten parameters for soil types in the Danish Soil Classification was elaborated. The prediction of soil water content, especially at pressure head -1 kPa, is more accurate using these van Genuchten parameters than using the pedotransfer functions developed in relation to the HYPRES database from a broad range of European soils.
In 1921 a burial mound from the Danish Early Bronze Age was excavated near the village of Egtved, Central Jutland. The mound contained a well-preserved oaken log coffin with remnants of a young ...woman, the Egtved girl. The central parts of the mound including the coffin were surrounded by a strongly cemented iron pan from which a number of samples were taken. Previous finds of well preserved coffins showed similar iron pan formations and different theories on the development of these pans have been proposed, e.g. podzolization. During the last decade a number of new burial mounds containing iron pans have been excavated, unfortunately without well-preserved oaken log coffins. Chemical analyses have been carried out on soil samples from these newly excavated mounds and compared with similar analyses on samples from the iron pan of the Egtved mound. The results show that the iron pans of the Bronze Age burial mounds were formed by redox processes.
A soil description and soil sampling system for the examining of burial mounds by boring has been developed and tested through fieldwork. The method is based on borings with manually driven chamber ...augers, which was found to be a fast and easy technique of characterizing burial mounds. The system is intended for explanation of mound construction and soil formation. It contains a systematic part enabling the comparison of the different mounds as well as a non-systematic descriptive part, in which atypical observations and interpretations are recorded. Integrating pedological and archaeological approaches the system is well suited for solving different interdisciplinary problems, among which are the characterization of the state of preservation of the barrows and conditions of preservation within the barrows.
Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 98: 46-55.
In the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century archaeological excavations of Bronze Age burial mounds in Jutland occasionally revealed ...mounds with water saturated cores, in which the conditions of preservation were extraordinary good. The wet areas were totally encapsulated by thin, strongly cemented iron pans, and until 1942 several different theories on the genesis of these pans were proposed. All of the theories referred to some sort of podzolisation in their explanation of the genesis.
In 1995 excavations at a burial mound at Lejrskov, Southern Jutland revealed similar iron pans. This paper describes the results of the chemical and morphological analyses of the burial mound and the buried soil below, It was established that the soil profile development in the top of the barrow was very weak probably as a result of soil erosion, but iron pans had been formed by reduction/oxidation processes (gley-formation) surrounding the core of the mound. The buried soil below the barrow was an acid sandy soil without signs of podzolisation.
In the 1830s agricultural experiments were carried out at the Danish state plantation Frederiksgave at the Danish Gold Coast Establishments, in order to establish an economical sustainable plantation ...system which could produce export crops to among others the European market. Experiments were made with coffee, tobacco, sugar cane and some other crops and spices, but they failed. Based on climatic data from Frederiksgave for the year 1835 and from nearby climatic stations in the 20
th
century combined with soil data from the dominant soil types analysed in 1999, the natural reasons for the lack of success are discussed.
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