While the use of rare earth elements (REE) to examine soil processes is an increasingly popular approach, very few studies have investigated its application to the study of dominant soil genetic processes at the landscape scale in semi-arid environments. This study analyses the distribution and fractionation of REEs in 12 soil profiles from different lithologies in the Kalahari Basin of Botswana (BKB) and examines their relationships with pedogenetic processes, calcium carbonate origin and pH. The results show significant variability in total REE contents (12.8 - 193.2 mg kg-1) in the soil profiles, depending on the soil parent material. Total REE abundance within soil profiles show a strong correlation with clay-associated elements, such as Al (r = 0.8) and K (r = 0.7), as well as with iron Fe (r = 0.6). These correlations suggest that clay formation plays a primary role in REE enrichment in the soil profiles. On the other hand, the moderate positive correlation with Ca (r = 0.4) indicates a minor contribution from calcium carbonate accumulation to REE enrichment. pH shows weak positive correlations with REE content across the full soil profile (r < 0.2), reflecting negligeable influence on REE distribution in the study soil profiles. The fractionation ratios between light REEs and heavy REEs (LREEs/HREEs) range from 0.6–1.5 in soil profiles on alluvial and fluvio-lacustrine sediments, 0.4–0.9 from those on basaltic and sandstones rock, and 0.7–1.1 from those on sands, clays, calcretes and silcrete. Given the previously demonstrated preferential complexation of HREEs in pedogenic carbonates, these results suggest a mixed pedogenic and lithogenic origin for calcium carbonates in soil on alluvial and fluvio-lacustrine sediments, and in soils on sands, clays, calcretes and silcretes. Soils on basaltic and sandstone rocks, on the other hand, have a purely pedogenic origin. The results of this study provide a solid baseline for understanding REE distributions in the BKB and tracing the origin of calcium carbonate in semi-arid environments.
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