Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Concepts of soils
- 2 Pedogenic processes and pathways of horizon differentiation
- 3 Soil phases: the inorganic solid phase
- 4 Soil phases: the organic solid phase
- 5 Soil phases: the liquid phase
- 6 Soil phases: the gaseous phase
- 7 Soil phases: the living phase
- 8 The State Factor theory of soil formation
- 9 Factors of soil formation: parent material. As exemplified by a comparison of granitic and basaltic soils
- 10 Factors of soil formation: climate. As exemplified by volcanic ash soils
- 11 Factors of soil formation: topography
- 12 Factors of soil formation: biota. As exemplified by case studies on the direct imprint of trees on trace metal concentrations in soils
- 13 Factors of soil formation: time
- 14 Soil formation on Earth and beyond: the role of additional soil-forming factors
- 15 Soil functions and land use
- 16 Physical degradation of soils
- 17 Chemical degradation of soils
- 18 The future of soil research
- Appendix: Naming soils and soil horizons
- References
- Index
8 - The State Factor theory of soil formation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Concepts of soils
- 2 Pedogenic processes and pathways of horizon differentiation
- 3 Soil phases: the inorganic solid phase
- 4 Soil phases: the organic solid phase
- 5 Soil phases: the liquid phase
- 6 Soil phases: the gaseous phase
- 7 Soil phases: the living phase
- 8 The State Factor theory of soil formation
- 9 Factors of soil formation: parent material. As exemplified by a comparison of granitic and basaltic soils
- 10 Factors of soil formation: climate. As exemplified by volcanic ash soils
- 11 Factors of soil formation: topography
- 12 Factors of soil formation: biota. As exemplified by case studies on the direct imprint of trees on trace metal concentrations in soils
- 13 Factors of soil formation: time
- 14 Soil formation on Earth and beyond: the role of additional soil-forming factors
- 15 Soil functions and land use
- 16 Physical degradation of soils
- 17 Chemical degradation of soils
- 18 The future of soil research
- Appendix: Naming soils and soil horizons
- References
- Index
Summary
Pedology is the branch of the natural sciences that deals with the biogeochemical processes that form and distribute soils across the globe. The word ‘pedology’ was coined by the German scientist F. A. Fallou in 1862 (Tandarich and Sprecher, 1994; Oxford Dictionary, 1966), but the point in time that it became a true science rests upon when theories of the soil and its formation were developed and adopted by the early pedological community (Kuhn, 1962). An exhaustive historical analysis of the development of pedology has not been conducted, though we know that numerous ‘scientific’ advances were made during the nineteenth century by scholars in several countries. For example, Eugene Hilgard arguably was the premier soil scientist of the nineteenth century. His breadth of knowledge, scientific techniques (chemical and physical), and his mastery of multiple disciplines made him a truly formidable presence on the international geological and agricultural science scenes (Jenny, 1961; Amundson and Yaalon, 1995; Amundson, 2005a). Yet, as his biographer Hans Jenny (1961) concluded, Hilgard did not distil his vast knowledge and concepts into neat conceptual models or theories. Although one can easily see that Hilgard clearly understood the important controls on soil formation, an elucidation of these into a concise intellectual package was ultimately accomplished by others. First, Vasily Dokuchaev and his Russian colleagues identified and discussed what we now know commonly today as the ‘factors of soil formation’ (Dokuchaev, 1883).
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- Soils: Basic Concepts and Future Challenges , pp. 103 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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