A study of certain genetic soil types of the Swan River area of Manitoba

Abstract

In conducting a soil survey of the Swan River Area of Manitoba in 1950 and 1951 it was found that many of the dominant soil types presented a complex classification problem. The main reason for this problem was that the soils in two of the main landscape areas appeared to be in a state of transition and were not climax types of soil. In one area the soils showed certan morphological characteristics normally found only in soils developed under prairie-grassland conditions but where the dominant native vegetation was trees. The soils in this area showed some blackearth characteristics and some grey-wooded characteristics. The soils in the other landscape area appeared to resemble blackearths and yet, on closer inspection it became apparent that such factors as drainage and parent material may have had a profound influence on the type of soils that had developed within this area. As the reconnaissance survey of the soils in the Swan River Area progressed it became obvious that a more detailed study was necesssary before these soils could be properly understood and classified. Therefore the study herein reported was undertaken. The results have clarified the concept of the soils and enabled the author to offer a classification of some of the soils in the Swan River Area of Manitoba...