Search

A STUDY of the distribution of trace elements in rocks, soils and plants in Snowdonia1, to be reported in detail elsewhere, has led to a realization of the relative importance of material borne in the atmosphere as a source for the trace elements in certain organic accumulations. Relevant analytical data are provided from two sources—first, from an investigation into the role of saxicolous lichens in the initial stages of pedogenesis and, second, from a routine survey of the trace element status of mountain topsoils.

A DEFINITIVE and important characteristic of soil is its heterogeneity in fabric. This is evident in the great variety of spatial arrangements of components that have been established by the microscopic study of soil in thin section1. Chemical methods of soil analysis, however, usually involve the homogenization of soil material and therefore the destruction of its fabric by drying, sieving and representative sampling. Microchemical and mineralogical analysis of undisturbed soil fabric, on a scale comparable with the smallest recognizable components (that is, at least at the micron level), is therefore desirable to complement the existing chemical approach.

DURING the course of some investigations of seasonal variations in the available cation content of soils in Denbighshire (North Wales), samples of the soil solution were needed. The soils are classed as loams and silty loams, and moisture contents ranged from 30 to 47 per cent.