User:Alandmanson/Soils of KwaZulu-Natal

The soils of KwaZulu-Natal have developed in exceptionally diverse environments:
 * Altitudes range from sea level to over 3000 m (mean annual temperatures range from 22°C);
 * Topography varies from the relatively flat North coastal plains to the rugged terrain of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, Msinga and the Drakensberg mountains;
 * Rainfall varies considerably over short distances where the terrain is more broken, ranging from about 400 mm per annum in some of the driest valleys to over 2000 mm per annum on parts of the coastal plain and the Drakensberg.

This diversity in climate and terrain, together with changes in geology has given the province a complex pattern of soil types – these include deep sands on the coastal plain; shallow, poorly developed soils in steep valleys; deep, highly weathered soils in the highlands; and duplex soils in much of the dryer interior of the Thukela basin.

Broad-scale soil maps of South Africa, based an the Land Type Survey of 1972-2002, indicate that the dominant soils of the province are Lithic (shallow soils developing from hard rock or saprolite - Leptosols). Oxidic, Humic and Cumulic soils are widespread (mainly Acrisols, Ferralsols and Cambisols) - these are deeper, well-drained soils without signs of waterlogging or coarse macrostructure in the upper part of the subsoil; Plinthic, Duplex and Melanic soils predominate in some environments, and Gleyic, Calcic and Vertic soils have developed in suitable landscape positions.

Fey, M.V., 2010. Soils of South Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1-107-00050-6 Preview

Fey, M.V., 2010, August. A short guide to the soils of South Africa, their distribution and correlation with World Reference Base soil groups. In Proceedings (Vol. 19, pp. 32-35). PDF

Paterson, G., Turner, D., Wiese, L., Van Zijl, G., Clarke, C. and Van Tol, J., 2015. Spatial soil information in South Africa: Situational analysis, limitations and challenges. South African Journal of Science, 111(5-6), pp.1-7. DOI