Major World Soil Groups and Some of Their Geographic Implications

HE development within the last half century of a science, pedology, which deals with the soil as a natural body, has opened a vast area of uncorrelated geographic material. It is the purpose of this paper to indicate certain tentative landmarks therein.' Although soil is one of the major elements of the environment and its importance is appreciated in a general way, its r6le has not been fully understood. It shares its influence upon plant life with climate and, since climate is more or less familiar and its effects are relatively easily understood, the real significance of the soil is often overlooked in the effort to set forth the climatic relationships. The soil, in contrast to the climatic environment, is extremely complex; and little was known until recently with regard to its fundamental characteristics. It had been studied largely from the standpoint of its relationships to the materials from which it is evolved and to the method in which these materials accumulate, but little or no attention was given to the properties of the soil itself.2

Geography · Plant Ecology and Soil Science

• Aims and Scope of Modern Human Geography a Personal Contribution to Geographical Theory

  Open Access•Hendrik J Keuning•Tijdschrift voor Economische en…•1977

  Add to list