The Factors and Conditions of Soil Formation: A Critical Analysis of Equivalence

Abstract

New knowledge of soil patterns depending on geography, ecology and agricultural activity has renewed debate about Dokuchaev’s factors of soil formation: parent material, vegetation, climate, position in the landscape, age of the soil, subsoil water and agricultural activities. Considering the southern flank of left-bank Ukrainian Polissya, the dominant factor is the parent material: Sod-podzolic soils occur on sandur, Grey forest soils and Chernozem on loess. In the Forest-Steppe, the dominant factor is vegetation: Chernozem under grassland, Grey forest soils under oak forests. In the brown forest soil zone and high-mountain meadows of the Carpathians, the climate determines Burozems. In the rolling lands of the transition from forest-steppe to steppe, the determining factor is topographic position: Typical chernozem on the northern slopes, Ordinary chernozem on the southern slopes. In the transition from central to southern dry steppe in Prichernomorya, the dominant factor is redistribution of surface runoff: Chernozem in bottomlands adjacent to Dark chestnut soils on the heights. And in areas of naturally acid soils, the determining factor can be agriculture. Thus, soil formation is influenced by all the natural factors and conditions but, in any particular landscape, only one or two factors amongst them are determinant and dominant.