Particle size distribution of Oxisols in Brazil

Soil texture or particle size distribution is of fundamental importance not only for understanding soil chemical and physical functioning but also for soil classification within a given taxonomic system. The objective of this study was to collect and analyze particle size data of Brazilian “Latossolos” (Oxisols) published in the Brazilian Journal of Soil Science from 2003 to 2012. It is expected that the data collected and analyzed here can be used for evaluating the quality of soil particle size analysis, as well as to aid in the characterization of Brazilian soils. The dataset could also be used to evaluate pedotransfer functions that use particle size as estimators. Overall 737 data points with values of clay, silt and sand were tabulated. None of the three fractions were normally distributed. The clay fraction presented trimodal distribution, while the silt distribution was found to be right skewed asymmetric with a high frequency of lower values. The logratio analysis using sand as the divisor showed a strong linear relationship between silt and clay fractions. The dataset collected is available upon request by email.