BGC 12 soil orders

spodosols

• cool temperate regions

• cool coniferous forest (boreal)

• maine

• well-developed E horizon

mollisols

• semi arid

• temperate grasslands

• north american great plains

• thick A and B horizon from grass roots

ultisols

• warm temperate wet

• warm temperate forest

• southeastern USA

• highly weathered but not as much as oxisols

alfisols

• warm temperate

• temperate forest (decidous)

• ohio

• average forest soil

oxisols

• tropics

• tropical rainforest

• hawaii amazon

• highly weathered Fe/Al sesquioxides

gelisols

• poles

• artic tundra

• northern alaska canada siberia

• permanently frozen soils

aridisols

• arid

• deserts

• southewestern USA

• underlain by dryland CaCO3 (caliche)

histosols

• lowlying regions worldwide

• boreal articc tropical

• hudson bay lowlands

• organic peats found in wetlands

entisols

• varies dry/cool

• often deserts

• sahara

• sand dunes w/ no profile

inceptisols

• varies dry/cool

• varies

• alaska siberia

• quicky formed, poorly developed, glacial and floodplain landscape

andisol

• dependent on geology

• varies

• pacific northwest USA

• develop from volcanic rocks

vertisols

• dependent on geography

• varies

• india

• develop from limestone, basalt, mainly clay throughout