Soil-Forming Processes

Abstract

In the previous chapter, we reviewed the soil-forming factors and how they affected the soils and their distribution in Wisconsin. In this chapter, we will discuss the soil-forming processes. Bockheim and Gennadiyev (2000) identified 17 generalized soil-forming processes and linked them to soil taxa and diagnostic horizons , properties, and materials in Soil Taxonomy (ST) (Tables 4.1 and 4.2) and illustrated them in simple diagrams (Fig. 4.1). They subsequently added two additional processes: cambisolization and pedoturbation . In Table 4.3, we show the dominant soil-forming processes in the seven orders and 16 suborders represented in Wisconsin. The importance of these processes can be seen by the number of soil series and the soil areas across the state. Below we describe each of the ten soil-forming processes that are operative in Wisconsin soils: argilluviation, biological enrichment of base cations, gleization, paludification , melanization, podsolization , base cation leaching , and ferrallitization .