Pedogenesis

Pedogenesis is all the physical, chemical and biological processes responsible for the transformation over time of a parent rock into soil, followed by the evolution of this soil.

According to the characteristics of the parent rock, the local climate and vegetation, various types of soil form. Each has particular physical-chemical, and therefore agronomic, characteristics.

There are around twenty pedogenesis processes, including:

• Hydromorphy (saturation of soils in water);
• ferralisation (deterioration of minerals and concentration of iron and aluminium);
• cryoturbation (reworking of the soil under the action of frost and thaw);
• salinification (accumulation of salts);
• podzolisation (deterioration of clays by organic acids and reworking of metals);
• etc.