Soils of the Luxembourg Lias cuesta landscape

Abstract

The soil pattern of the Lias cuesta landscape in central Luxembourg is strongly related to lithology, land cover and land use. On a short distance, many of the major soil types of the temperate zone can be found, as the substrates show a clear distinction and gradient from acidic to more neutral conditions in both fine and coarser textured materials. This makes the area an interesting showcase of soils for both researchers and students. In separate sections, the various soils are described per landscape unit, and in relation to lithology, landscape position, geomorphological dynamics and land use. It starts with the soils of the highest plateau landscape with soils developed in the Liassic strata, including the Luxembourg sandstone, with dominantly Brunic Arenosols and also Podzols, and on the marls Regosols and Luvisols. Descending the steep cuesta front, the soils developed on the Liassic and Keuper strata in a face slope cuesta position are presented, with dominantly Arenosols, Regosols or Leptosols. Further down the cuesta, soils in the Muschelkalk strata in steep positions are discussed, and which show dominantly Leptosols and Regosols. Also soils developed in younger deposits occur, such as loess and Tertiary and Quaternary river sediments, that are present in various altitudinal positions, with dominantly Stagnosols, Luvisols or Alisols. Finally, the Keuper soils present in a dip slope or rolling landscape position are presented, with mainly Stagnosols or Planosols under forest and Regosols under agriculture. Furthermore, the described trends in soil development were corroborated by an independent statistical test on soil properties and soil types as found in relative undisturbed forests along the described landscape gradient.