Wadi El-Asyuti is encompassing promising areas for the future
projects of agricultural utilization, however, its soils are occupied an area of
the Eastern Desert of Egypt. According to the aerial photo-interpretation
technique, the identified main landforms could be assigned to five units, i.e.,
Wadi plain, Wadi bottom, Rubble terraces, Alluvial fan, River terraces and
Rocky area. The developed soils on these units were investigated throughout
ten representative soil profiles. The obtained results indicated that the studied
soils are characterized by texture class varies of sandy-silty clay loam, CaCO3
content of 1.2-37.7 % and organic matter content of 0.05-0.61 %. Also, the soil
salinity of the investigated soils ranged between non-saline to extremely-saline,
soil pH tended to alkaline side, and soluble cations were generally categorized
in an ascending order of Ca++ > Na- > Mg++ > K+ vs soluble anions of SO4-- ≥ C1,
which were alternatively dominated and both exceed soluble HCO3-.
Soils of coarse texture class have the highest soil bulk density values
(Wadi plain and Rubble terraces soils), while the relatively fine texture soils
(Alluvial fan and River terraces soils) have the lowest ones. On the contrary,
soil total porosity values exhibited an opposite trend, the highest values were
recorded in case of the fine soil texture and tended to decrease with increasing
coarseness of soil texture. Also, the greatest values of hydraulic conductivity
are associated with the soils of coarse texture class, and then decreased in the
fine textured soils of alluvial fan and River terraces soils. In addition, available
soil moisture range coincides very well with textural variations among soil
profile layers. Moreover, the CEC values are more related with soil texture
class, besides an exchangeable sodium percentage indicates that the studied
soils are non-sodic.
Statistical size parameters revealed that the studied soil sediments of
Wadi El-Asyuti are mostly transported and deposited through an aqueous
environment, and locally combined action of aqueous-aeolian media. With
regard to the mineralogical composition of the studied soils, the obtained data
showed that heavy minerals are detected as opaques, pyroxenes and amphiboles
in high amounts. Also, the ultra stable minerals of zircon, garnet and rutile are
present in relatively moderate amounts, while the remaining ones are detected
in less pronounced amounts. The ratios of ultra stable minerals and weathering
values indicate that soils of Wadi El-Asyuti are formed of either multi-origin or
multi-depositional regime, due to the heterogeneity of the parent materials prior
to inception to geogenetic weathering or resulted in from the geochemical
weathering prevailed in the source sediments.