Factors Controlling Soil Development on a Sequence of Raised Beaches, Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T., Canada

A random stratified sampling design was used on soils formed on the crests of a sequence of raised beaches in Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T., to determine if time is the principal factor in soil development. Two hundred and eighty-eight bulk soil samples were collected from three depth intervals on 24 beaches; 14 soil properties were determined for each sample. An analysis of variance showed that most soil properties varied systematically and not by error or inherent random variations within and among beaches. Regression modelling and cluster analysis, however, revealed that soil development was discontinuous and not a direct function of time, while canonical discriminant analysis revealed that soil properties associated with parent material weathering were the principal discriminating variables. A random sample of the stone fraction revealed that, regardless of age, soils formed on beaches dominated by calcareous lithologies had developed a fine-textured and organic-rich solum, while the sola formed on beaches dominated by metamorphic and igneous lithologies are coarse textured and more poorly developed. Beach lithologies in Truelove Lowland appear to have been controlled by the lithology of adjacent rock outcrops that were progressively exposed to marine action at the time of coastal emergence. Consequently, parent material, not time, has been the principal factor influencing the degree of pedogenesis on this sequence of beaches.