|
|
Article: Soil organic matter in rainfed cropping systems of the Australian cereal belt(*).(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Australian Journal of Soil Research
- Article date:
- May 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Introduction
The Australian cereal belt stretches as an arc from north-eastern Australia to south-western Australia (24 [degrees] S-40 [degrees] S and 125 [degrees] E-147 [degrees] E; Fig. 1), with mean annual temperatures from 14 [degrees] C (temperate) to 26 [degrees] C (subtropical), and annual rainfall ranging from 250 mm to 1500 mm. With high potential evapotranspiration, often exceeding 2000 mm annually, most of the cereal belt lies in semi-arid to arid regions.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The predominant soil types are Chromosols, Sodosols, Vertosols, and Kandosols with significant areas of Ferrosols, Kurosols, Podosols, and Dermosols (Isbell ...