In collaboration with Bill Johnson (University of Kansas) and Bill Zanner (University of Nebraska) we are currently analyzing modern soils throughout the midwestern United States. Most of our sites developed in late-Pleistocene or Holocene loess ranging from SE Minnesota through SW Nebraska and Kansas. The parent material of these soils is remarkedly similar throughout the study area and we hope to show that the properties of these soils are mainly reflecting present day climate conditions. Previous studies of soils that developed under similar conditions in China have shown that magnetic susceptibility of the upper soil horizons strongly correlates with mean annual precipitation and can be used to reconstruct paleo-rainfall for the Chinese loess plateau (Maher and Thompson, Quat. Res., v.44, 383-391, 1995). Rather than relying on magnetic susceptibility alone, however, we study a combination of magnetic and non-magnetic soil properties to account for the potential loss of iron minerals from the soil system and to obtain a robust transfer function based on a combination of parameters. Measurements include the determination of the soil mineral content, soil color, textural changes, magnetic susceptibility, several remanence parameters, hysteresis loops and Curie temperatures. Our long term goal is to use this transfer function in the study of older, buried soils and reconstruct paleoclimatic conditions for the last interglacial period (Sangamon). For a PowerPoint presentation on our
research click
here (8.4 MB). |
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Bill Zanner
and Jim Bisbee (2005) studying a loess outcrop near Hubbard, NE |
The effects
of drought and erosion: A dry boat ramp at Swanson reservoir, SW Nebraska |
Bill Zanner
and Larry Roper (NE Division of Parks and Game) sampling soils with a Giddings
soil probe. |
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| Jim working hard at Oak Ridge Prairie, IA |
