Soils of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: a pedogenic response to landscape stability, climatic variability and anthropogenic activity during the Holocene

摘要

Bound by the Himalaya in the north and the Craton in the south, the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is one of the largest fluvial plains of the world. The IGP is monotonously flat with a spread of surface soils in hot arid conditions of Rajasthan in west to per-humid conditions in West Bengal. The soil-geomorphology of the IGP detailed during the last few decades is useful in determining the interrelationship among the pedogenesis, the climate, and the landscape evolution during the Holocene. These studies demonstrate that the IGP soils developed on five geomorphic surfaces with varying degree of development. Soils occurring on older geomorphic surfaces (>2.5 ka) are polygenetic with a distinct record of climatic changes and neotectonics.