Ferralsol

▪ FAO soil group

 one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (soil). Ferralsols are red and yellow weathered soils whose colours result from an accumulation of metal oxides, particularly iron and aluminum (alumina) (from which the name of the soil group is derived). They are formed on geologically old parent materials in humid tropical climates, with rainforest vegetation growing in the natural state. Because of the residual metal oxides and the leaching of mineral nutrients, they have low fertility and require additions of lime and fertilizer if they are to be used for agriculture. Tree crops such as oil palm, rubber, or coffee are suitable, but pasture is often their main agricultural use after the original forest is cleared. Occupying just below 6 percent of the continental land surface on Earth, Ferralsols are found mainly in Brazil, the Congo River basin, Guinea, and Madagascar.

      Ferralsols are technically defined by a fine-textured subsurface layer of low silt-to-clay ratio, high contents of kaolinitic (kaolinite) clay and iron and aluminum oxides, and low amounts of available calcium or magnesium ions. Ferralsols are related to the Oxisol order of the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Related FAO soil groups originating in tropical climates and composed of weathered soils with high iron or aluminum content are Plinthosols (Plinthosol) and Alisols (Alisol).

* * *