Morphological characteristics and classification of inceptisol in Mamuju regency, West Sulawesi

Abstract Soil morphology provide overview the evolution in the soil body through description and interpretation of soil profile properties as initial information in classifying soil. The research purpose is to determine the morphological characteristics and soil classification of Inceptisols in four study profiles: Kalonding, Batu Papan, Pepalang and Batu Ampat, in Mamuju regency, West Sulawesi. The research method used is descriptive qualitative exploration by survey in the field and soil analysis in the laboratory. The results showed that the dominant texture was clay in all soil profiles with a low silt/clay ratio. This was related to the high intensity of weathering due to high rainfall and easily weathered host rock and relatively high content of resistant minerals. Other chemical properties such as pH, N-total, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg, K, Na) and P-available are generally low with a relatively constant distribution pattern with increasing depth. Soils are classified into the order of inceptisols in all soil profiles because they have a cambic sub-horizon resulting from physical alteration, chemical transformation or a combination of these processes. The hicks humidity regime so that the sub-order category is named udepts. The temperature regime includes Isohipthermic so that it is categorized into the Great Group Dystrudepts and the Typic Dystrudepts sub-group for the Study Profile of Batu Papan, Pepalang and Batu Ampat, while for the Profile of the Kalonding study is Lithic Dystrudepts.