Does anyone have any experience measuring phytolith concentrations in humid soils? In particular, I'm especially interested in phytolith concentrations (and radiocarbon dating of phytolith occluded carbon) in E soil horizons formed in Late Pleistocene loess.
I don't know about potential concentration of phytoliths in E horizons, but I do know they can be translocated in a soil profile. As a leached horizon, E horizons may have had many particle moved as well as organic materials & other soil chemicals. They would be likely to hang up in horizons with greater clay content, and especially those with greater formation of clay bridges and clay films. I had a project north of Huntsville, TX that experiences significant amounts of heavy rainfall. Many phytoliths were relocate to lower portions of the soil profile and exhibited significant abrasion, indicative of that translocation. The abrasion affected the analyst's ability to identify them, but provided a taphonomic indication that most of the phytoliths (and potentially some of the charcoal) had been moved downward out of their original depositional context.
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