A TOPOSEQUENCE OF SOILS IN NORTHERN BELIZE, CENTRAL-AMERICA

Vertisols and related soils including Mollisols and Inceptisols can be of great importance in some tropical areas, Many soils in northern Be lize, Central America have surface horizons high in clay content over soft or hard limestone materials, We examined Louisville and Xaibe cla ys, the two most common soils of northern Belize, The Louisville soils near San Victor and Ranchito have black and very dark gray, clay-text ured surface horizons over weathered coral, The Xaibe soil in a higher landscape position near Patchacan has a dusky red, clay-textured surf ace horizon over hard limestone or weathered coral, We also examined a transect along-a topographic gradient near Patchchacan and found Xaib e soils at the higher position and Louisville soils at the lower posit ion, All soils are well-supplied with bases, Organic C and N are high, ranging-from 33.2 to 71.8 g kg(-1) and 1.6 to 6.2 g kg(-1), respectiv ely, in the Al horizons of the Louisville and Xaibe soils, Clay minera logy of the soil near San Victor (Louisville) is predominantly smectit e, while that of the soil near Ranchito (Louisville) is randomly inter stratified smectite/kaolinite, Clay mineralogy of the soil near Patchc hacan (Xaibe) is highly weathered, interstratified, smectite/kaolinite . From physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of the Louisvil le and Xaibe soils, we speculate that they are all developed from a so ft calcareous material derived from weathering coral (locally termed s ascab) underlying them. The hard limestone (caprock) found directly be neath the Xaibe soils is also arguably secondary calcite, We classifie d the soil near San Victor as a Typic Calciustert, the soil near Ranch ito as a Typic Calciustoll, the dark soil near Patchchacan as a Udic C alciustoll, and the red soil near Patchchacan as a Lithic Ustropept.