ERSC 3650 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Edaphology, Water Cycle, Pedogenesis

• School: Trent University
• Department: Environmental & Resource Studies
• Course: ERSC 3650
• Professor: Ponce- Hernandez Raul

Document Summary

Pedology deals with soil genesis, morphology and classification. Soil genesis: how the soil forms in itself. Sometimes, the concept of pedology leads to edaphology and vice versa. If soils were not capable of retaining moisture, they would not be a part of the hydrological cycle. Soil is an ecosystem itself because it is able to sustain living organisms. Having a good map of topography is very helpful for mapping soils because some soils are differentiated by the landscape that they are present upon. Soil and rock are a portion of the land. Parent material can be organic or inorganic (usually rock), when you dry a marshland and get a material (thick layer of organic) materials. Even if topography is flat, there are micro and macro organisms (o). They break down and interact that help with the weathering process and help create particles of soils. Topography and organisms work together to break down particles and create soil.