LOWLAND TROPICAL PODSOLS AND THEIR VEGETATION

Abstract

PODSOLS are soils characteristic of cool temperate regions with a damp climate, and until recently they were generally thought to be absent in the zone between about 40° N. and 40° S. Some years ago, however, Senstius¹ showed that podsolization occurred at high altitudes in the mountains of Java and the Philippines, though he did not find any mature podsols. Harden² afterwards described well–developed podsols at about 2,000 m. in the Arfak Mountains in New Guinea (latitude 1° 10' S.). In these observations there was nothing surprising, because, except for the smaller seasonal range of temperature, the climate at high altitudes in the equatorial zone may be very like that of cool temperate lowlands. It is the object of this article to point out that podsols (or soils similar to podsols in most of their characteristics) occur in the* tropical lowlands down to sea–level, a fact which is not generally recognized and which does not accord with the climatic theory of soil development—at least in the form in which it is often stated.