soil atlas of europe

United States Soil Classification System Figure 12: Gleysol Profile. (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996) Figure 15: organic Soil Landscape (British Columbia). (Source: Soil Landscapes of Canada, Version 2.2, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1996) Spodsols are soils that develop under coniferous vegetation and as a result are modified by podzolization. Parent materials of these soils tend to be rich in sand. The litter of the coniferous vegetation is low in base cations and contributes to acid accumulations in the soil. In these soils, mixtures of organic matter and aluminum, with or without iron, accumulate in the B horizon. The A horizon of these soils normally has an eluvial layer that has the color of more or less quartz sand. Most spodosols have little silicate clay and only small quantities of humus in their A horizon.

* Luvisol - is another type of soil that develops under forested conditions. This soil, however, has a calcareous parent material which results in a high pH and strong eluviation of clay from the A horizon. * Solonetzic - is a grassland soil where high levels of evapotranspiration cause the deposition of salts at or near the soil surface. Solonetzic soils are common in the dry regions of the prairies where evapotranspiration greatly exceeds precipitation input. The movement of water to the earth's surface because of capillary action, transpiration, and evaporation causes the deposition of salts when the water evaporates into the atmosphere. * Luvisol - is another type of soil that develops under forested conditions. This soil, however, has a calcareous parent material which results in a high pH and strong eluviation of clay from the A horizon. Oxisols develop in tropical and subtropical latitudes that experience an environment with high precipitation and temperature. The profiles of oxisols contain mixtures of quartz, kaolin clay, iron and aluminum oxides, and organic matter. For the most part they have a nearly featureless soil profile without clearly marked horizons. The abundance of iron and aluminum oxides found in these soils results from strong chemical weathering and heavy leaching. Many oxisols contain laterite layers because of a seasonally fluctuating water table.