Studies on the Genesis of Soils in Jong River Basin in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone

Abstract

The soil resources of Sierra Leone remain an integral part of sustainable agricultural development but knowledge of the suitability of soils and their management requirements for a variety of land uses is still lacking to a greater extent. In this view, a detailed soil survey of three chiefdoms in Northern Sierra Leone was undertaken to evaluate the genesis of soils and interpret soil-landscape properties and their relationships using the toposequence and free style approach of soil survey. Three major soil types, viz, gravelly, gravel-free over gravel and gravel-free soils, formed either directly or indirectly from weathered and disintegrated parent materials of two geologic origins namely Rokel River Series (comprising of sandstone, shale and mudstone), and Granite and Acid Gneiss were identified. The gravelly soils are formed from sandstone and sandy shales of the Rokel River Series, which upon weathering released iron and hydrated oxides that hardened into plinthite upon drying. The gravel-free over gravel soils are formed from acid gneiss containing acid and intermediate igneous and metamorphic rocks, which upon weathering produced sandy clay textured soils whereas the gravel-free soils are derived from sedimentary rocks (shales and mudstones) of Rokel River Series, which upon weathering and action of organisms produced sandy clay loam and sandy clay textured soils. The gravel-free over gravel soils are mostly located in the summit and back slopes and show dark brown to dark yellowish-brown hue and moderate chroma, weak to moderate structure and absence of coarse fragments in the 0 - 40 cm layer, and a strong brown hue and high chroma, very weak fine angular blocky structure having abundance of coarse fragments from 40 cm and above. In these soils, the compactness of ironstone and sandstone gravels increases with depth. The gravel-free soils are found on three landscape positions, viz, back slopes, foot slopes and toe slopes. On the back and foot slopes, the soils are characterized by very dark brown to dark yellowish-brown hue and high chroma, sandy loam to sandy clay texture, coarse angular to moderate sub-angular blocky structure and absence of coarse fragments throughout the horizon. In these soils, the clay content and sand grain sizes were observed to increase with depth. On the toe slopes, the soils show black to greyish-brown hue and low chroma, silty loam to sandy loam, structureless and high water holding capacity.