2.1 — Soil variability and development
Soil forming factors
Page 1 / 4
How do soils develop?
As we have seen, soils have a history. Some are relatively young, others have been developing for thousands of years or even more. And none of them are ever truly finished. Soils are constantly changing, just like we all age over time. What we observe in a soil profile is a snapshot – the result of long-term interactions between rock, water, air, life, landscape, and time. When we prepare a soil monolith, we capture only one moment in this ongoing process. The soil remaining in the field continues to evolve.