Geomorphological landscapes related to the classification of soils in plains and terraces of Tabasco, Mexico

Abstract

The cartography and soil classification at a semi-detailed scale contributes to the decision making on intensive uses of agricultural land at the level of small regions, municipalities and communal agricultural land (hh). Studies of this type are scarce in the Mexican tropic, specifically those that relate landscape aspects with regional soils. Knowledge of these relations allows more efficient and economic soil surveys. The objective of this work is to zone the geomorphological landscapes and relief/modeling to classify soil units in the plains and terraces of Tacotalpa and Jalapa in Tabasco, Mexico. Based on the geopedological approach, geomorphological landscapes at 1:250000 scale and relief/modeling at 1:50000 scale were classified and mapped. At the same scales, soil groups and soil units were classified and mapped, with the support of orthophotos, a digital elevation model, and field verification. Eighty-two percent of the study area corresponds to a flat area on fluvial and marshy sediments. The remaining area corresponds to terraces and hills. Fourteen reliefs/models were mapped: active channel, inactive channel, high and low natural dam, meander beach, floodplain, decantation basin, cumulative valley, low hillock slightly convex to concave, low lomerio slightly convex, low to high lomerio slightly convex, moderately convex high hill, strongly convex hill, and erosive valley. Six soil groups were classified: Gleysols 65%, Fluvisols 15%, Lixisols 8%, Luvisols 7%, Alisols 4.02%, and Histosols 1%, with 27 qualifiers (primary and secondary). This study at the scale 1:50000 allows explaining the geographical distribution of the soil units in the different geoforms and relief/modeling.