Abstract
AbstractPedology, or the study of soil, is often viewed focusing on soil formation, morphology, mapping and classification. But the study of soil has largely expanded beyond these four areas and now includes quantitative studies using soil legacy data combined with technological advances in data collection, soil sampling and computation. We have global availability of soil information and can retrieve pedological information for any location including some indication of its accuracy. Scientific and technological developments in pedology have been led by the rise of several subdisciplines including pedometrics, digital soil mapping, spectral pedology, digital soil morphometrics, hydropedology, microbial pedology, astropedology and the development of pedotransfer functions. With the expansion of pedology and its relevance for understanding the earth system and tackling global change, it is postulated that soil science has now entered the ‘Pedocene’—a soil epoch equivalent to the Anthropocene. The Pedocene is characterized by the quantitative understanding and evaluation of the global soil system, and the effects of human‐induced changes brought to soil.
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