SW88

Location: Winchelsea

Australian Soil Classification: Vertic (& Calcareous), Sodosolic, Redoxic, HYDROSOL

General Landscape Description: Gently undulating rises.
Site Description: Low lying flat depression in minor alluvium.
Geology: Quaternary-Newer Volcanics - Basalt

SW88 Landscape

Soil Profile Morphology:

Surface Soil

A1	0-8 cm	Dark brown (10YR3/3 moist and 10YR4/2 dry); fine sandy loam; weakly pedal; firm consistence dry; pH 5.7:	SW88 Profile. Note: Surface horizons have been stripped from the soil profile
A2	8-15/18 cm	Possible A2 (incipient) but not clear in trench; abrupt change to:
Subsoil
B21g	15/18-50 cm	Very dark brown (10YR2/2 moist) with greater than 50% of peds having gleyed interiors of greyish brown (10YR5/2 moist) and brownish yellow (10YR6/8 moist); sandy light clay in upper part of horizon to light medium clay (sandy) deeper down and in ped interiors; very coarse (>150 mm) prismatic structure; firm to very firm consistence dry; pH 8.1; clear or gradual change to:
B22g	50-80 cm	Dark grey (10YR4/1 moist) with many (>50%) grey (10YR5/1 moist) and yellow (10YR7/8) mottles; medium clay; fine polyhedral to very fine lenticular structure; shiny ped faces; pH 8.7; clear or gradual change to:
B23gt	80-110 cm	Black (10YR2/1 moist) ped faces with many (~80%) pinkish grey (7.5YR6/2 moist) and brownish yellow (10YR6/8) mottles; medium clay; medium (<50 mm) prismatic structure; pH 8.9; clear change to:
B24g	110-180 cm+	Greyish green (5G4/2 moist) and light olive brown (2.5Y5/3 moist) with strong gleying and fine yellowish brown (10YR5/8 moist) mottles; sandy clay; apedal; strongly developed large (~10 mm) biopores, 50-120 mm apart; very few (<2%) soft calcium carbonate and isolated calcium carbonate nodules; pH 8.3.

Gley detail showing biopores and redoximorphic features (B24g horizon).

Key Profile Features:

• Shallow surface horizons.
• Strong texture contrast between surface (A) horizons and subsoil (B21) horizon.
• Vertic features (i.e. lenticular peds) in deeper subsoil.

	pH	Salinity Rating	Sodicity	Dispersion
Surface (A1 horizon)	Moderately Acid	Medium	Non-Sodic	None
Subsoil (B21 horizon)	Moderately Alkaline	High	Strongly Sodic	Moderate1
Deeper Subsoil (at 90-105 cm)	Strongly Alkaline	Extremely High	Strongly Sodic	Slight2
1 Strong dispersion after remoulding. 2 Slight aggregate dispersion probably due to high level of soluble salts, complete dispersion after remoulding.

The surface soil is moderately acid. The subsoil is moderately alkaline becoming strongly alkaline with depth.

Salinity rating is lmedium in the surface becoming high in the subsoil and extremely high with depth.

The soil is non sodic in the surface. The subsoil is strongly sodic.

The clay content increases markedly at the A/B boundary.

Horizon	Sample Depth (cm)	pH (water)	pH (CaCl2)	EC 1:5	NaCl %	Exchangeable Cations
						Ca	Mg	K	Na
						meq/100g
A1	0-10	5.7	5	0.28	0.03	4.4	3.9	0.9	0.2
A2	8-18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
B21	30-50	8.1	7.4	0.76	0.16	3.1	10	0.8	2.7
B22	60-80	8.7	8.2	1.4	0.33	3.1	14	1	5.1
B23	90-105	8.9	9.3	1.2	0.3	2.3	11	0.5	4
B24	110-150	8.3	8.5	0.67	0.14

Horizon	Sample Depth (cm)	Exchangeable Aluminium mg/kg	Exchangeable Acidity meq/100g	Organic Carbon %	Nitrogen %	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	0-10	<10	10	3.5	0.29	18.3	10.3	23	49	9	14
A2	8-18					-	-	-	-	-	-
B21	30-50					29.9	14.4	17	45	6	31
B22	60-80					37.5	18.3	10	43	8	38
B23	90-105					31.2	14.2	26	38	4	31
B24	110-150

• The profile is likely to be saturated for a number of months during most years.

• The high level of soluble salts in the subsoil is likely to restrict the growth of salt sensitive species.