Soils Questions and Answers

In Fig. 3.1's nutrient cycle for cleared rainforest, the arrow from biomass (B) to litter (L) is much smaller than in an undisturbed forest, and the soil (S) store shows a large outflow with only a thin inflow from weathering. What does this indicate about the cleared area's nutrient cycle compared with the undisturbed forest?

Name the term for the sequence of distinct soil profiles that develops down a single hillslope on one parent material under one climate, the differences arising from slope position alone.

Fig. 1.1 plots world vegetation belts against annual precipitation and annual temperature. Tropical rainforest occupies the corner of the graph with annual temperature around 25 to 30 degrees Celsius and annual precipitation above 1000, while the grassland belts sit at a similar temperature but with precipitation only around 200 to 600. What does the graph therefore show separates tropical rainforest from tropical grassland?

Fig. 1.1 shows the tropical rainforest belt reaching the highest annual precipitation values on the graph, peaking above 2000. Which climatic mechanism accounts for that rainfall total?