Pedological Endemism and the Soils of Trindade Island- South Atlantic, Brazil

Abstract

The unique combination of soil-forming factors would be expected to result in unique soils. When the same environmental conditions are together but in different areas, pedogenesis will act in the formation of soils with similar characteristics to each other. In this perspective, endemism applies to soil due to the precepts of Jenny’s theory about process and soil-forming factors. Among all Earth environments, oceanic island are the most promising for the emergence of endemism. Therefore, this work aims to study soils from Trindade Island, South Atlantic, that possible could be called endemic soils. For that, it was choose four soils for characterization of its physical, morphological and chemical attributes. The results show that the unusual source material (young volcanic rocks and carbonate bioclastic sedments) and unique environments (forests of giant ferns on cliffs influenced by orographic humidity) and interaction between the birds and the various lithological and pedological substrates allows the genesis of endemic soils. Trindade is a unique environment that allows diverse kind of pedological studies, and the preservation is an indispensable task to maintain the balance between different geoecosystems.