CLASSIFICATION AND TAXONOMY OF SOILS AND SOILSCAPES

Abstract

Pedology, as any field of geography, deals with both elementary territorial entities and aggregates (juxtapositions) of elementary entities that form unitary (genetically and functionally) territorial units known in last time as soilscapes. The classification of the elementary (territorial) soil entities can be achieved by different criteria. The most important systematization from scientific point of view is the natural classification, based on the essential characteristics of soils, reflection of soil genesis and evolution, named now soil taxonomy The soil taxonomy is therefore a generalization and systematization of soils based on main soil properties that reflect in the same time also the vertical organization of the threedimensional soils bodies. Depending on some differences of the manner of approach, several soil taxonomies where realized, national and international. Besides soil taxonomy, one utilize in practice soil systematization for different purposes; these ones represents technical or pragmatic classification that have for an object, known as land classification because also the terrain conditions are taken into consideration (soil - terrain). Unlike the elementary soil entities, the soilscapes have been not enough studied as natural segments of soil cover or systematized on the base of their spatial organization expressed by their pedogeographical assemblage, although the soils regions and soil zones represent aggregates of soilscapes at high levels. Elementary or low level soilscapes, as functional and natural territorial entities, can be generalized and systematized; a special taxonomy for soil landscapes can be developed. The soilscapes, being an ensemble of soils and land forms, may not be studied, systematized and characterized without the approach of the previous and present pedogenetic and reliefogenetic processed, in the correlation. Also the soilscapes can be classified according to pragmatic criteria (technical classification) in different purposes (agriculture, forestry, land improvement, erosion control). The studies of the soilscapes with their spatial organization and the soilscape classifications represent a new field of the pedogeography that must be developed.