Soil Forming Factors and Processes

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Soil forming factors not only affect the course of the genesis process but also the present and future performance of the soil system, in terms of how much organic matter, air, and water and how many organisms, nutrients, and minerals it can store. This chapter discusses the soil formation factors (climate, biota, parent material, relief or topography, and time) and their impact on the soil formation processes prevailing in different regions across the country. It has become clear that the factors of soil formation in Libya are mainly influenced by the hot and dry climate (low and irregular rainfall, high temperature, with a wide range of daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations, and high wind speed), which plays an important role in the sparseness of vegetation in the region. Climate dependency dictates particular types of soil formation processes that are more dominant in Libya than in other countries and reduce—if not entirely nullify—the effectiveness of many of them. Consequently, the soils produced in Libya are similar to the soils of arid regions in the world that are undeveloped or newly developed and are typically either Entisols or Aridisols. The situation is slightly different in coastal areas (i.e., Al Jabal Al Akhdar, and some small areas in the mountains of Tripoli), where the precipitation rates are higher and the climate is milder than in other parts of the country. In these areas, the vegetation cover is more widespread, and the processes of soil formation are more active. Thus, the local topography and the parent material are the main factors that influence the formation of more developed soils in these areas.