soil profile

Soil Pedogenesis

Figure 4: The development of a soil is influenced by five interrelated factors: organisms, topography, time, parent material, and climate. (Source: PhysicalGeography.net)

Pedogenesis can be defined as the process of soil development. Late in the 19th century, scientists Hilgard in the United States and the Russian Dukuchaev both suggested independently that pedogenesis was principally controlled by climate and vegetation. This idea was based on the observation that comparable soils developed in spatially separate areas when their climate and vegetation were similar. In the 1940s, Hans Jenny extended these ideas based on the observations of many subsequent studies examining the processes involved in the formation of soils. Jenny believed that the kinds of soils that develop in a particular area are largely determined by five interrelated factors: climate; living organisms; parent material; topography; and time