Pedodiversity and Island Soil Geography: Testing the Driving Forces for Pedological Assemblages in Archipelagos of Different Origins William R. Effland, Ph.D. Soil Survey Division, USDA/NRCS A. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Ph.D. Univ. de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands Juan J. Ibanez, Ph.D. Centro de Investigaciones sobre desertificacion, Spain 18 th World Congress of Soil Science Symposium 1.2A Spatial, Societal and Environmental Aspects of Pedodiversity July 10, 2006
Overview Biodiversity and Pedodiversity Research Objectives Island Study Areas Methods Results Hawaiian Islands Canary Islands
Introduction Island Biodiversity and Biological Communities Ecological Research Conservation Biology Limited studies of Pedodiversity and Soil Geography in Archipelagos
Quantification of Biological Diversity Definition of Diversity (Huston, 1994) Two primary components with statistical properties for any mixture of different objects The number of different types of objects in the sample Relative number or amount of each different type of object
Diversity and Human Judgement Definition of Diversity (cont d.) Two unavoidable value judgements Are the selected classes (and, by inference, class differentia) different enough to be considered separate types of objects? Are objects in a specific class similar enough to be considered the same type of object?
Role of Pedodiversity Analysis Conservation and preservation of the pedosphere as a natural resource Preservation of soils in their natural state increases opportunities to study ecological structure, function and dynamic properties Interactions with spatial pattern analysis
Research Objectives Analyze similarities and differences in the pedosphere for three archipelagos of different origins Study soil geographic distributions using taxonomic attributes Investigate landscape ecology methods for applications to pedologic research
Island Study Areas Hawaiian Islands Canary Islands Aegean Islands
Study Areas Hawaiian Islands Canary Islands Aegean Islands
Genetic Classification of Oceanic Islands (Nunn, 1994) Level One Plate-boundary islands Level Two Islands at divergent plate boundaries Islands at convergent plate boundaries Islands along traverse plate boundaries Intraplate islands Linear groups of islands Isolated islands Clustered groups of islands
Hawaiian Islands
Aegean Islands
Methods Soil Databases Hawaiian Islands 6 main islands in southeastern region of island chain State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO) 1:250,000 scale soils data Canary Islands 7 islands and 4 islets 1:250,000 scale unpublished (A. Rodriguez-Rodriguez) Aegean Islands CORINE database [Briggs and Martin, 1988] 682 islands with mostly calcareous and volcanic parent materials 1:1,000,000 scale EU soils map with FAO legend
Richness Indices Proportional abundance of an object Calculated with Excel software Shannon Diversity Index H = - p i.lnp i p i = n i /N where n i is the area of the i-th category and N is the total area Shannon and Weaver, 1949 Evenness E = H / H max = H / ln S E ranges from 0 to 1 S is richness or number of categories
Biogeographical Analyses Species-Area Relationship S = ca z S is the Number of species or taxa c is an empirical constant A is the Area z is a exponential value (theoretically near 0.25) McArthur and Wilson, 1967
Taxonomic Pedodiversity Richness Variety of species (e.g., soil types) Indices Number of different objects at a site Count of known soil types in a defined sampling unit Evenness or Equity Distribution of individuals among the species Object Abundance Models Distribution model that is closest fit to observed pattern of object abundance Examples log series, geometric series
Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands' Area and Maximum Elevation (Photo of HI landscape with taro fields, source: USDA/NRCS, 2005) 12,000 10,000 Area (km2) and Maximum Elevation (m) 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Hawaii Maui Lanai Molokai Oahu Kauai Area_km2 10467.06626 1891.36297 365.79461 675.515197 1549.68795 1440.072143 Max_elev_m 4205 3055 1027 1512 1227 1598
Geomorphic Dynamics of the Hawaiian Islands
STATSGO Soil Order Area and Relative Island Age for the Hawaiian Islands (Excluding Miscellaneous Areas) Histosols Entisols Andisols Inceptisols Alfisols Aridisols Mollisols Ultisols Oxisols 3,500 3,000 Area Percent of Hawaii Island The Youngest and Largest Island Andisols 5% Entisols 5% Area Percent of Kauai The Oldest and Modal Size Island Ultisols 6% Entisols 26% 2,500 Inceptisols 51% Oxisols 28% Area (km 2 ) 2,000 1,500 Histosols 35% Mollisols 10% Inceptisols 26% 1,000 500 0 Hawaii Maui Lanai Molokai Oahu Kauai
Hawaii Island Climate and Precipitation Water Balance Source: USGS, http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/snt/noframe/pi179.htm
Soil Order Area Distributions (km 2 ) Among the Hawaiian Islands Hawaii Maui Lanai Molokai Oahu Kauai 100% 90% 80% 70% Relative Percentage 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Alfisols Andisols Aridisols Entisols Histosols Inceptisols Mollisols Oxisols Spodosols Ultisols Vertisols Kauai 0 0 0 330 28 331 119 338 17 79 9.5 Oahu 30 0 0 487 4.4 130 130 315 0 272 102 Molokai 2.3 39.4 12.7 270 0.7 109 56 103 0 43 5.2 Lanai 0.9 0 5.3 191 0.2 30 27.6 45 0 17 2.3 Maui 4.4 0 19.8 328 28 789 443 131 0 83 6.5 Hawaii 0 330 164 299 2170 3131 48 0 0 0 0
Canary Islands Fits of diferent variables to power laws in Canay Islands c z r dst c z r dst Area-Relief 79.3 0.45 0.77 815.4 Relief-Area *** *** *** *** Area-FAO Soil* 2.6 0.20 0.60 2.2 Relief-FAO Soil* 1.1 0.30 0.66 2.1 Area-USDA Soil 2.1 0.22 0.75 2.9 Relief USDA-Soil 0.3 0.76 0.96 1.5 Area-Bioclimate 0.9 0.25 0.65 2.2 Relief-Bioclimate <0.1 0.74 0.94 1.0 Area-Wild Veg. 1.20 0.24 0.85 1.5 Relief-Wild Veg. <0.1 0.57 0.98 0.5 Area-Geology 0.4 0.38 0.95 0.9 Relief-Geology 0.1 0.54 0.82 1.8 Area-Quatern. <0.1 0.68 0.81 2.1 Relief Quaternary 0.1 0.50 0.56 3.0 Area-Nº Plants * <0.1 0.97 0.60 47.2 Relief-Nº Plants* <0.1 1.33 0.87 28.9 Area-Coleopt.* 0.5 0.78 0.55 85.6 Relief-Nº Coleópt* <0.1 1.27 0.92 41.1 Area-Habitats 2.1 0.21 0.61 1.6 Relief-Habitats <0.1 0.77 0.96 0.6
Canary Islands
Canary Islands Diversity Analysis
Canary Islands Mean Annual Precipitation
Pedodiversity Analysis Conservation and preservation of the pedosphere as a natural resource Preservation of soils in their natural state Increased opportunities to study ecological structure, function and dynamic properties Interactions with spatial pattern analysis
Thank You! Questions?