A MODEL OF SOIL DEVELOPMENT FOR LOESSIC SOILS SUGGESTS RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SOIL MAGNETIC PROPERTIES

We modelled soil erosion and magnetic enhancement along a hillside in the Loess Hill Region of Western Iowa to constrain the rates of magnetic enhancement in loess-derived soils. In general, rates of soil formation, including magnetic enhancement, are investigated through chronosequences. Unfortunately, it is difficult to control all soil forming factors over long periods of time and soil ages are often insufficiently known to calculate rates of soil formations.

Over the past 20 years we have measured soil erosion rates at Badger Ridge in western Iowa and collected 11 soil profiles that determined the soil magnetic properties along a slope transect. Using these data, we use an object-oriented model written in Python 3.8.10 (Spyder IDE) to model erosion and soil enhancement rates along the transect, beginning at the summit and ending at the toeslope.

First modelling results suggest that soil magnetic enhancement approaches observed values withing a few decades, confirming high rates of soil formation in loess observed elsewhere.