Soil great groups discrimination using magnetic susceptibility technique in a semi-arid region, central Iran

This study was performed to determine the variability of magnetic susceptibility to discriminant soil great groups in an arid region including six soil great groups in the Borujen Region, Chaharmahal-Va-Balchtiari Province, central Iran. Seventy-three soil profiles were described and classified in six soil great groups (i.e., Calcixerepts, Haploxerepts, Haploxeralfs, Xerorthents, Calcixerolls. and Haploxerolls) according to the Soil Survey Staff. Soil organic carbon (OC), calcium carbonate equivalent (CaCO3), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), dithionite extractable iron (Fe-d), oxalate extractable iron (Fe-o), iron pyrophosphate (Fe-p), magnetic susceptibility at low and high frequencies (chi(lf) and chi(hf)), and firquency-dependent (chi(fd)) were measured in the laboratory for the soils selected from control sections. Among the six soil great groups, Haploxerolls showed the highest chi(l)(f) and chi(hf) values, lowest Fe-o, highest Fe-d and Fe-d-Fe-o, as well as the highest Fe-p. However, all stated features showed an inverse trend for Haploxeralfs great group. The results of discriminant analysis indicated that the accuracy of 54.11% was achieved to discriminant soil great group for the combination of magnetic measures, different form of Fe, and soil physicochemical properties in the control section. Therefore, it can be concluded that magnetic susceptibility could be used as a fast and nondestructive technique for discrimination of soil great groups in the present case.