Properties, Formation and Fertility of Vertisols in Fujian Province

The zonal soils in the south subtropical zone of Fujian are lateritic red soils. A type of dark clayeysoils, which was historically defined as lateritic red soils, derived from weathering products of the basalts wasindicated by the investigation results to be markedly different from lateritic red soils and could be classifiedas Typical Hapluderts. They are distributed as complex zones with the lateritic red soils. The vertisolsin this region were considered as a type of lithogenic soils and the vertic chararteristics delay and inhibitthe soils from allitic processes and then formed an independent soil type. The vertisols have higher fertilityand better agricultural production characters than the lateritic red soils. The different ways in utilizing andmanaging these soils arcording to their properties and fertility are also suggested.