Site SW44

Location: South Ecklin.

Australian Soil Classification: Bleached-Vertic, Eutrophic, Yellow CHROMOSOL.

General Landscape Description: Gently undulating plain.
Mapping Unit: Unit 155 (Maher and Martin, 1987).
Site Description: Grazing paddock (dairy).
Geology: Tertiary - Moorabool Viaduct Formation.

Site SW44 Landscape

Soil Profile Morphology:

Surface Soil

O	0-12 cm	Root mat:	Site SW44 profile
A1	12-20 cm	Dark brown (7.5YR3/2); fine sandy loam; pH 5.7:
A2	20-35 cm	Light yellowish brown (10YR6/4) conspicuously bleached, with a few (10%) strong brown (7.5YR5/8) and yellowish brown (10YR5/8) mottles; fine sandy clay loam; contains a few (5%) ferruginous nodules (5-15 mm in size); pH 5.9:
Subsoil
B21	35-50 cm	Light yellowish brown (10YR6/4) with a common (20%) amount of strong brown (7.5YR5/6) mottles; light medium clay; strong coarse blocky, parting to strong medium polyhedral structure; firm consistence moist; contains a few (10%) ferruginous nodules (2-40 mm in size); pH 6.0:
B22	50-80 cm	Light yellowish brown (10YR6/4) with a common amount of yellow (10YR7/8) mottles; medium clay; moderate coarse prismatic, parting to strong coarse blocky and medium polyhedral structure; contains very few (2-5%) ferruginous nodules (up to 50 mm in size); pH 6.1:
B3	80+ cm	Light grey (10YR7/1) with many yellow (10YR7/8) mottles; medium clay; strong coarse lenticular, parting to strong fine lenticular structure; slickensides present; pH 7.0.

Key Profile Features:

• Strong texture contrast between surface (A) horizons and subsoil (B21) horizon.

Key Profile Characteristics:

	pH	Salinity Rating	Sodicity	Dispersion
Surface (A1 horizon)	Moderately Acid	Very Low	Non-Sodic	None
Subsoil (B21 horizon)	Moderately Acid	Very Low	Non-Sodic	None
Deeper subsoil (at 80+ cm)	Neutral	Very Low	Non-Sodic	Slight

The surface and upper subsoil is moderately acid. The subsoil becomes neutral at 80 cm depth.	The salinity rating is very low throughout the profile.	The clay content increases markedly at 35 cm depth.

Horizon	Horizon Depth (cm)	pH (water)	pH CaCl2	EC 1:5	Exchangeable Cations
					Ca	Mg	K	Na
					meq/100g
A1	12-20	5.7	4.8	0.06	3.9	0.3	0.1	0.05
A2	20-35	5.9	5	<0.05	1.4	0.8	0.05	0.05
B21	35-50	6	5.3	0.1	4.3	4.4	0.1	0.4
B22	50-80	6.1	5.6	0.12	5.1	4.3	<0.1	0.5
B3	80+	7	6.3	0.14	7.5	4	0.1	1.3

Horizon	Horizon Depth (cm)	Field Capacity pF2.5	Wilting Point pF4.2	Coarse Sand (0.2-2.0 mm)	Fine Sand (0.02-0.2 mm)	Silt (0.002-0.02 mm)	Clay (<0.002 mm)
A1	12-20	25.9	7.8	14	53	17	8
A2	20-35	18.9	5.6	12	56	17	15
B21	35-50	29.8	18.6	8	33	10	48
B22	50-80	36.9	22.9	6	25	9	60
B3	80+	37.3	22.4	8	24	9	59

Profile Described By: Mark Imhof and Austin Brown, August 1998.

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