Soils of manuae and Palmerston Islands, two coral atolls in the Cook Islands

摘要

Surface features of the land and morphological, chemical, and mineralogical properties of soils developed on coralline accumulations on Manuae and Palmerston Islands in the South-west Pacific Ocean are described. The soils show little profile development and are weakly structured. The organic profile is due primarily to infiltration of organic matter rather than incorporation within the soil body, the soils being mainly only moderately melanised.