Coastal ‘Tiger Mottle’ Soils , Simpson, Southwest Victoria, Australia

Description:  acidic sandy loam texture, overlying a bleached A2 horizon and clay subsoil.
Ferro-manganiferous gravels
Tiger mottles are deep in the soil profile

Location:  flat, coastal plains,
Heytesbury Settlement, Simpson, Western District, southwest Victoria

Values for these soils:
– Food production -soil produces pasture mainly used for dairying, in a high rainfall zone (600-1000 mm/yr)
– Research – as a window into the geologic history of the formation of the soil from the regolith below
– Aesthetics-  beautiful ‘art’ created by soil formation process

 Challenges for Tiger Mottle Soils:
– Acidic
– Lacking in copper
– Prone to waterlogging due to water perching on the clay subsoil and saturating the A2 and surface soil.
– Cattle trampling the wet soil cause pugging/poaching of the surface  which then aggravates the drainage problem and reduces pasture growth and utilization as feed and so milk production
– Subsurface hazards for infrastructure placed underground

See more about Tiger Mottles at http://vro.depi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/coranregn.nsf/pages/corangamite_weathering_tiger
Visit another Western Victorian coastal Soil Selfies at the Apollo Bay school garden
See alluvial soil challenges in the grazing Soil Selfies  from Long Flat, South Australia.

Credits : Richard MacEwan, of Bendigo, gives permission for his photos and information to be used under a (cc) license 2015.
Editing and page created by Jeanie Clark, enviroed4all®, Warracknabeal, for use in education under a (cc) licence 2015

return to Soil Selifes location page

page set up 14 November 2015, updated 9 January 2016